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LIFE  WITH  THE  TROTTERS 


BY 


JOHN    SPLAN, 


WITH   A   CHAPTER    ON 

HOW   GOLDSMITH   MAID  AND  DEXTER 
WERE   TRAINED. 

(From  Information  furnishtid  by  Mr.  Budd  Doble.) 


PRICE,  THREE  DOLLARS. 


Chicago  : 
H.   T.    WHITE,   Editor   and    Publisher. 

1889. 


Order  from  the  Publisher,  H.  T.  WHITE,  Lock  Box  270,  Chicago,  111. 


n 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  Tear  1889,  by 

HENKY    TEN    EYCK    WHITE    and    AMANDA    SPLAN, 

In  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Washington,  D.  C. 


^i^ Printers   /-F 


^vl)n  Bplan. 


"^^OR  several    years   It   has   been   apparent  that  a  book 
.     A  having  to  do  with  the  present  history  of  the  trotting 
turf  would    be  welcomed   and   appreciated    by  a  vast 
constituency  who  take  an  active  interest  in  the  light- 
harness   horse;  and   this  volume   has   been    prepared 
with    that    fact    in    mind.      Of  the    men   who    have 
written  what  appears  in  its  pages,  little  need  be  said. 
Budd    Doble's   name   is    known  wherever    the    trotting 
horse    has   been    heard   of;    his   ability  has    never   been 
ik  questioned,   and    he  stands  to-day   nearer,    perhaps,  to  the 

r^"^  American  public  than  any  other  man  in  his  profession. 
^//f  I  John  Splan  is  an  artist  in  the  sulky,  a  man  of  positive  genius 
in  the  matter  of  driving  a  horse,  while  his  wonderful  memory, 
keen  appreciation  of  what  is  interesting  to  the  public,  and 
entertaining  way  of  relating  it,  combine  to  make  his  portion  of  the 
book  of  exceptional  interest  and  value.  Mr.  Dunbar,  in  addition  to 
being  a  trainer  and  driver  of  the  first  rank,  possesses  an  analytical 
mind  of  the  highest  type,  and  that  his  literary  style  is  at  once  simple 
and  fascinating,  the  readers  of  this  book  will,  I  am  sure,  admit.  That 
his  chapters  on  the  training  and  management  of  young  trotters  are 
the  most  valuable  in  the  book,  is  my  deliberate  judgment. 

I  desire  to  in  this  public  manner  express  my  obligations  to 
Messrs,  Doble  and  Dunbar  for  the  more  than  generous  manner  in 
which  they  have  shown  their  friendship  for  me,  by  contributing  to 
this  volume  matter  which  money  could  not  have  secured,  and  without 
which  the  work  would  have  been  of  far  less  value. 

Mr.  Robert  Bonner,  who  has  done  more  than  any  other  man  to 
elevate  the  trotting  turf,  and  who  has  made  it  possible  for  a  business 
man  to  own  a  trotter,  either  for  road  or  track  use,  without  his  standing 
in  the  commercial  or  social  world  being  impaired  thereby,  I  would 
thank  for  the  encouragement  and  endorsement  he  gave  me  at  a  time 
when  such  action  was  of  more  value  than  money  could  possibly  have 
been. 

For  unsolicited  acts  of  friendliness  that  can  be  but  partially 
repaid  by  an  acknowledgment  of  this  character,  I  am  indebted 
to  Messrs.  R.  A.  Bower^  John  R.  Walsh,  and  C.  H.  Durphy,  of 
Chicago. 

H.  T.  WHITE. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 


Boyhood  days  at  Little  Falls,  N.  Y. — Runuing  away  from  home  and  reach- 
ing the  Buffalo  track — Pelham  Tartar,  my  first  trotter — Something 
ahout  the  stallion  Byron — How  old-time  trotters  were  trained — Pilot 
Temple,  Tackey,  and  Dixie — The  pacer  Billy  Boyce — A  trip  to  Cuba — 
I  return  to  New  York  City  and  go  to  work  for  Dan  Mace — "Lucy 
Jimmy"  teaches  me  to  rub  a  trotter — Tempest  and  her  fevered  feet — 
Starting  out  on  my  own  account  as  a  trainer — My  first  race  and  the 
glory  thereof — Lady  Saulpaugh  and  her  races — The  great  match  at 
Paterson,  N.  J. — Fun  on  Staten  Island.  .....  5 


CHAPTER  11. 

Kansas  Chief,  first  a  cattle  herder,  then  ridden  by  a  gentleman,  and  next  a  2:30 
trotter — His  feet  fail  and  he  is  given  away  after  being  sold  for  $7,500 — 
Traded  to  Mr.  Simmons,  he  comes  into  my  hands — How  his  feet  were 
treated — A  great  campaign  from  the  lakes  to  the  seaboard — Don't  trot 
your  horse  when  he  is  out  of  condition — Kansas  Chief 's  last  races — How 
Dan  Mace  discovered  Rarus — A  talk  in  the  hotel  at  night — The  story  of  a 
game,  handsome,  and  honest  horse. 28 


CHAPTER  HI. 

Rarus,  the  first  trotter  to  beat  2:14 — How  he  was  bred  and  raised  by  a  Long 
Island  farmer — The  old  gentleman  thought  by  his  neighbors  to  be  too 
enthusiastic  about  the  colt — His  first  race  on  the  Island — How  he  came 
into  my  hands,  after  making  a  record  of  2:20:^4— A  successful  trip  through 
the  central  circuit,  winning  all  his  races  but  one — How  Jim  Crawford 
fooled  the  pool  buyers— Going  West  and  beating  the  famous  Bodine — 
Entering  Rarus  in  a  race  against  the  crack  trotters  of  the  land.        .        53 


ii  CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


Rarua  wins  his  first  race  against  the  crack  trotters  of  the  country — A  private 
trial  in  fast  time  over  the  Fleetwood  track— The  trip  to  California  with 
Goldsmith  Maid— Another  fast  mile  in  private,  and  a  refusal  of  |45,000  for 
the  gelding— Andy  Daniels  and  the  cattle  raiser  at  Chico— Inside  facts 
about  the  race  in  which  Rarus  beat  Goldsmith  Maid— Coming  East  again 
and  lowering  his  record  lo  2:16— The  wonderful  race  against  Great  Eastern 
at  Fleetwood  Park,  . 83- 

CHAPTER  V. 

How  Rarus  was  wintered  at  Cleveland— Barred  from  the  free-to-all  races  in  the 
summer  of  1878- He  trots  in  2:14  at  Cleveland— Uncle  Ben  Wright's 
unlucky  bets— The  record  lowered  to  2:13,14  at  Buffalo— A  great  race  at 
Hartford— Gus  Glidden  and  Edwin  Forrest— Trouble  at  Minneapolis,  and 
a  great  wagon  performance  at  Chicago — Another  trip  to  California — An 
accident  in  the  stable,  and  what  the  veterinary  said— Trotting  in  2:13}^  to 
save  Mr.  Conkliu's  |10— The  sale  to  Mr.  Robert  Bonner,  etc.        .        113 

CHAPTER  VI. 

The  pacer  Johnston,  and  the  manner  in  which  he  was  trained  to  beat  all  the 
records — A  nervous,  fretful  horse  that  would  not  feed  well — Treatment  at 
Cincinnati  during  the  winter  months — Slow  work  in  the  spring — Speed 
comes  gradually — Dave  Colross  turns  up  in  the  nick  of  time,  and  takes 
care  of  the  horse— A  mile  in  2:10  at  Milwaukee,  and  then  2:06^  at 
Chicago — Mattie  Hunter,  Swcetser,  Gem,  and  other  famous  pacers.       146 

CHAPTER  VII. 

The  story  of  the  fast,  game  and  reliable  stallion  Wedgewood — A  horse  that 
had  a  succession  of  hard  races  during  his  career — Going  close  to  2:20  the 
first  time  he  started — Desperate  contests  in  the  mud  at  St.  Louis  and  Cin- 
cinnati, and  a  glorious  victory  at  Washington— Down  the  central  circuit 
the  next  season,  winning  every  race  in  which  he  started — A  peculiar  horse 
to  train  and  drive— What  came  of  trying  to  please  a  friend — Laying  up 
heats,  and  sparring  with  the  judges  as  well  as  the  other  drivers — A  well- 
told  tale  of  a  great  horse's  campaign  from  the  lakes  to  the  sea.         .         173- 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

Trotters  with  romantic  hi.tories  that  I  have  driven— Tlie  gray  gelding  Cliarley 
Ford,  that  was  first  a  turf  outlaw,  then  made  a  record  of  2:1G|;  was  valued 
at  $15,000,  and  finally  sold  for  $300— Ford's  match  with  the  stallion  Bone- 
setter,  and  how  he  was  trained  for  it — He  is  the  only  horse  that  ever  won 


CONTENTS.  Ul 

a  heat  from  Maud  S. ;  the  story  of  the  incident — The  great  race  at  Chicago 
with  Hauuis,  where  "the  talent"  was  ou  the  wrong  side — Adelaide,  a 
little  mare  that  had  one  remarkable  peculiarity;  no  matter  how  hot  the 
day,  or  severe  the  race,  she  would  not  sweat — Drawing  wood  into  Water- 
town,  N.  Y.,  by  the  side  of  her  dam,  she  is  purchased  by  a  horseman  and 
makes  a  record  of  2:19| — A.  pony  in  size  and  weight,  she  beats  some  of  the 
best  horses  in  the  country,  every  ounce  of  her  being  race-horse  material — 
Planter  and  his  good  qualities — The  wonderful  affection  of  the  trotter  Bay 
for  an   old   white    horse 193 


CHAPTER  IX. 

How  Maud  S.  trotted  in  2:08f,  as  seen  by  the  man  who  drove  a  runner 
alongside  of  tlie  mare — What  Splan  knows  of  Guy,  the  sensational  trotter 
of  1888 — Driving  him  to  a  road-cart  in  'i-AHi,  the  horse  being  barefoot — The 
story  of  how  Colonel  West  discovered  Kentucky  Prince,  the  sire  of  Guy — 
Trotters  are  born,  not  made — .Tay-Eye-See's  good  races  down  the  cii-cuit 
in  1887,  beating  Arab,  the  crack  trotter  of  the  year — Clingstone's  race 
against  the  watch  in  2:14 — His  great  victory  over  Harry  Wilkes  at  Detroit — 
How  he  was  trained  for  tkis  race  and  driven  in  it.        .        .        .        215 


CHAPTER  X. 

Nobby,  the  most  peculiar  horse  Splan  ever  drove;  a  wild,  scary  fellow  that  had 
a  wonderful  flight  of  speed —  The  race  at  Cleveland  in  whicli  Xobby 
beat  a  lot  of  cracks — Mr.  David  Bonner's  well-i'emembered  compliment — 
Stuffing  a  horse's  ears  with  cotton,  and  some  incidents  connec'ed  with  the 
practice — Needle  Gun,  and  the  trouble  he  made  on  a  ferry  boat — W.  J. 
Gordon's  horses,  his  breeding  farm,  and  his  cliaracter  as  a  man  —  Chat 
about  wliat  certain  drivers  have  done  with  particular  families  of  liorsos  — 
Protection's  great  race  against  J.  B.  Richardson.        .        .        .         245 


CHAPTER  XI. 

Other  drivers  who  liavc  made  a  name  in  connection  witli  certain  families  of 
horses — Morrill  Higbee  and  the  Sprague  strain  of  blood — Frank  Van  Ness 
with  Harry  and  Rosaline  Wilkes — Jock  Bowen,  and  how  he  fooled  some 
people  who  imagined  that  he  could  not  drive  a  pacer  well — Horace  Brown 
comes  fnmi  a  family  of  practical  horsemen — Billy  Weeks  an  excellent 
rider,  as  well  as  a  good  reinsnian — Charles  ]Mar\in  the  man  who  has  brought 
out  nearly  all  the  fast  so:  s  and  d:iughters  of  Electioneer — Some  facts  about 
Governor  Stanford's  venture  in  the  lirceding  of  trotters — Pluck  has  a 
good  (leal  mon;  to  do  with  success  than  luck — Governor  Stanford  in  some 
respects  like  General  Grant — A  colt  of  his  breeding  s(  )ld  for  .foOjOOO.         272 


IV  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  XII. 

How  to  train  the  trotter  and  keep  him  ia  good  fettle — His  mouth  the  first  thing 
to  be  looked  after — An  experience  ■with  Fanny  Witherspoon — Don't  pull  a 
horse,  and  he  will  not  pull  you — Overfeeding  and  is  consequences — Give 
water  at  all  times — The  groom  must  be  neat  in  appearance  and  not  a  drink- 
ing man — Too  many  blankets  a  bad  idea — Some  points  about  boots — The 
use  of  pads  and  sponges — Mambrino  Sparkle's  bad  feet,  and  the  great  races 
she  trotted — Why  clipping  is  beneficial — Work  in  the  early  spring — Teach- 
ing trotters  to  score  well — Sulkies,  road-carts,   timing-watches,  etc.        298 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

Work  a  horse  with  the  watch,  but  don't  try  to  make  him  beat  it — Doble  and 
Goldsmith  Maid — The  pacer  Johnston  never  worked  out  at  top  speed — 
One  speeding  each  week  is  ordinarily  sufficient — Preparations  for  a  race — 
Deportment  on  the  track — How  to  talk  to  the  judges — Laying  up  heats  an 
important  matter — How  to  drive  after  the  word  is  given — A  case  of  bad 
judgment  in  a  postponed  race — Shipping  horses  from  point  to  point — The 
training  and  management  of  trotting  stallions 324 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

Calmar,  a  horse  that  needed  only  proper  shoeing  to  improve  his  record  eight 
seconds  and  make  him  win  good  races — His  gallant  fight  with  Woodford 
Chief  at  Cincinnati — A  kind  word  for  George  A.  Baker,  once  a  promi- 
nent figure  on  the  trotting  turf — How  Lady  De  Jarnette  was  given  a  fast 
record  by  changing  her  check- rein — Hints  to  owners  of  horses — AVilson's 
race  in  which  he  went  a  mile  in  2:16J-,  and  the  mistakes  that  caused  him  to 
be  defeated — Sufiicient  preparation  is  what  makes  good  campaigners,  while 
lack  of  work  results  disastrously — Fred  Folger's  career  an  illustration  of 
this — Why  Budd  Doble  put  tips  on  Jack  the  day  before  the  $10,000  race  at 
Rochester — The  peculiar  manner  in  which  Wolford's  Z.  was  shod  and  how 
it  improved  him — The  pacer  Argyle,  and  the  trotter  Colonel  Lewis — Trot- 
ters affected  in  a  marked  degree  by  changes  of  climate — Little  Gypsy's 
great  race  at  Cleveland — Pen  sketckes  of  noted  characters  on  the  trotting 
turf ....        350 


CHAPTER  XV. 

The  trotting  interest  one  that  extends  throughout  the  lanil  and  is  growing  every 
year— Famous  road  riders  of  New  York  City  and  elsewhere — Commodore 
Vanderbilt's  present  to  his  spiritual  adviser — Robert  Bonner  and  his  sons, 
the  Rockefellers,  Mr.  Frank  Work,  and  others— Men  in  other  cities  who 
love  the  trotter  for  the  pleasure  and  health  they  derive  from  driving — Some 


CONTE^S^TS.  V 

hints  about  the  purchase  and  cure  of  a  road  horse — Decide  just  what  you 
want  the  animal  for,  and  then  use  him  for  that  purpose  only — Don't  expect 
your  gardener  to  also  be  capable  of  taking  good  care  of  your  road  horses — A 
few  practical  suggestions  that  will  commend  themselves  to  all  owners  of 
horses 377 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

Budd  Doble  writes  in  a  chatty  and  interesting  manner  of  Goldsmith  jNIaid  and 
Dexter — How  the  famous  brown  gelding  was  placed  in  his  stable  by  Hiram 
Woodruff — The  young  man's  doubts  and  fears  over  the  responsibility  he 
had  assumed — Lowering  Dexter's  record  in  the  tirst  race  he  drove  him,  and 
becoming  more  conlident — The  season  ends  with  a  mile  in  2:18  under 
saddle — Trotting  in  2:17i  at  Buffalo  the  following  year  and  beating  the 
world's  record — How  the  young  reiusmau  felt  on  that  momentous  occa- 
sion— Dexter  is  purchased  by  Mr.  Robert  Bonner  and  retired  from  the 
turf — The  story  of  Goldsmith  Maid,  the  champion  trotter  of  her  day,  and 
that  for  many  years  was  Queen  of  the  Turf — She  was  rough- gaited  when 
Mr.  Doble  got  her,  and  could  not  beat  2:30 — Her  first  race  a  disappointment 
to  him — A  new  system  of  training  adopted  the  following  spring  with  good 
results — The  wonderful  intelligence  di-played  by  the  Maid  both  in  the 
stable  and  on  the  track — She  knew  when  a  race  was  coming  off  and 
became  terribly  excited — Figuring  to  get  the  best  of  her  opponents — Her 
wonderful  affection  for  Old  Charlie — A  happy  family  of  three  that  was 
finally  broken  up.         .........        402 


CHAPTER  XVn. 

The  education  of  trotting-bred  colts — Early  development,  and  the  reasons  there- 
for— Fast  yoimgsters  the  ones  that  sell  well — Colt  handling  noAv  a  distinct 
branch  of  the  trainer's  art — The  man  who  handles  a  colt  must  learn  to  con- 
trol his  temper — Hints  about  the  best  time  to  have  foals  dropped — Treat- 
ment of  the  mare  at  this  season — Teach  the  suckling  colt  that  man  is  a 
friend,  not  an  enemy — The  story  of  a  veterinarian,  and  wliat  one  experience 
taught  Dunbar — Putting  on  the  halter — Handle  the  colt  frequently,  but  do 
not  lead  him  much — How  to  put  mares  and  their  foals  in  afield — Accidents 
on  a  stock  farm  generally  due  to  carelessness — Management  of  the  marc 
and  foal  in  the  stable — Turning  out  the  youngsters  during  their  first  sum- 
mer— Preparations  for  weaning  time  that  will  be  found  very  valuable — 
Looking  after  the  appetites  of  the  colts  when  they  have  been  weaned — 
When  the  work  of  leading  colts  alongside  of  a  horse  sliould  begin — Tlie 
proper  method  of  doing  this  explained  in  detail — A  straight,  covered  track 
better  than  a  circular  one — Colts  differ  as  much  in  disposition,  etc.,  as 
matured  horses,  and  must  be  treated  accordingly — No  absolute  rule  by 
which   to  train  can   be   laid   down.         ......         430 


Tl  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 

The  training  of  colts  gone  into  in  detail — How  the  breaking  harness  should  be 
put  on  and  made  use  of — Proper  adjustment  of  the  lines  an  important  feat- 
ure— Teaching  the  pupil  to  obey  the  word  of  command — The  first  hitch 
to  the  breaking  cart — Don't  have  visitors  around  at  this  time — Preparing 
for  the  stakes  in  which  the  young  trotters  are  entered — Accustom  the  colt 
to  other  horses,  and  then  speed  him  a  little — Keep  your  own  counsel  as  to 
what  is  being  done — Don't  be  alarmed  at  what  you  read  concerning  other 
people's  colts — June  a  good  month  in  which  to  test  your  material  a  little — 
The  prompting  horse  should  not  be  allowed  to  beat  the  pupil  or  carry  him 
too  fast — Keep  a  record  of  what  each  animal  does  and  how  he  does  it — No 
two  colts  can  be  trained  exactly  alike — The  first  trial  of  the  most  promising 
youngsters— A  surprise  often  in  store  for  the  trainer  at  this  time — Driving 
on  the  road  occasionally  a  good  pi  m — The  earnest  work  to  be  done  in  August 
— Shipping  the  colts  to  the  place  where  they  are  to  trot — What  to  do  when 
you  reach  the  track — All  ready  for  the  first  race  with  the  young  trotter. 
439 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

Preparing  the  colt  for  the  yearling  race — Accustoming  him  to  objects  about  the 
track — No  training  necessary  at  this  stage — Be  on  time  when  the  race  is 
called,  and  don't  keep  people  waiting — Scoring  half  a  dozen  yearling 
colts  a  tedious  job — What  to  do  after  the  word  is  given — No  occasion  to  be 
in  a  hurry  to  get  the  pole — Do  your  best  work  on  the  straight  side — How  to 
drive  when  you  look  like  a  winner  in  the  home  stretch — The  secnt  of  your 
success  is  in  careful  and  intelligent  methods  of  training — Shipping  the 
colt  home  again  and  preparing  him  for  another  race  in  October — A  mile 
once  in  awhile  well  within  his  speed — The  quality  of  sulkiness — Some 
inside  history  about  the  famous  trotter  Guy — How  he  went  a  mile  to  pole 
in  2:17 — An  exciting  experience  with  Guy  when  he  ran  away  on  a  trot, 
and  stopped  only  from  force  of  habit — A  terrible  accident  prevented  by 
the  horse's  intelligence — What  the  writer  accomplished  in  one  season  by 
the  methods  of  training  described 440 


Life  with  the  Trotters. 


CHAPTER  I. 


Boyhood  Days  at  Little  Falls,  N.  Y. — Running  Away  from  Home  and  Reacli- 
ing  the  Buffalo  Track — Pelham  Tartar,  my  First  Trotter — Something 
about  the  Stallion  BjTon — lluw  Old-Time  Trotters  were  Trained — Pilot 
Temple,  Tackey,  and  Dixie— The  Pacer,  Billy  Boyce— A  Trip  to  Cuba— 
I  Return  to  New  York  City  and  go  to  Work  for  Dan  Mace — "Lucy 
Jimmy  "  Teaches  me  to  Rub  a  Trotter — Tempest  and  Her  Fevered  Feet — 
Starting  out  on  my  Own  Account  as  a  Trainer — My  First  Race  and  the 
Glory  Thereof — Lady  Saidpaugh  and  Her  Races — The  Great  Match  at 
Paterson,  X.  J. — Fun  on  Staten  Island. 

I  was  born  at  Little  Falls,  Herkimer  County,  N.  Y.,  on 
the  6tli  day  of  May,  1849,  and  from  the  time  that  I  can 
remember,  horses  had  a  fascination  for  me. 

Like  most  country  towns,  the  one  where  I  first  saw  the 
light  had  a  livery  stable,  and  this  one  was  run  by  a  man 
named  Mort  Bellinger,  a  good  soul,  who  was  not  annoyed 
if  a  boy  who  liked  a  horse  hung  around  his  x^lace.  It  Avas 
at  the  Bellinger  stable  that  I  got  my  first  ideas  of  horse- 
flesh, and  by  the  time  I  was  seven  years  old  had  a  fair 
notion  of  a  horse.  There  had  been  a  half-mile  track  at 
Little  Falls  for  a  good  many  years,  and  Charlie  Champlin 
was  the  star  of  the  driving  fraternity  in  that  xxirt  of  the 
country  then.  He  used  to  have  trotters  at  the  track,  and 
they  were  the  first  fast  horses  I  ever  saw.  .Vbout  this  time 
my  mother  found  that  I  was  x^aying  a  little  too  much  atten- 
tion to  horses,  and  insisted  on  sending  me  to  school.  Like 
most  boys,  this  plan  did  not  take  well  with  me,  and  after 
three  days  at  school  I  l)olted  the  track  and  went  home. 
Then  my  mother  gave  me  the  alternative  of  going  to  school 


6  LIFE    WITH   THE   TKOTTEK8. 

or  being  sent  to  a  farmer.  I  chose  the  fanner,  as  I  thought 
there  was  a  better  chance  of  getting  away  from  there  than 
there  would  be  from  school,  and  so  I  went  farming  with  a 
man  named  William  Broad  well.  He  lived  near  Trenton. 
This  was  in  the  spring  of  the  year.  Rural  life  disagreed 
with  me  right  from  the  start,  there  being  too  much  work  in 
it,  and  too  little  time  for  play.  But  in  S23ite  ot  this,  I 
staid  with  Broad  well  about  two  years;  and  during  that 
time,  wlien  the  county  fair  came  off,  I  saw  the  first  trotting 
race  of  my  life.  It  was  at  Trenton,  and  over  a  track  about 
a  third  of  a  mile  in  circumference  that  was  laid  out  in  an 
oi'chard  belonging  to  a  man  named  John  Tanner.  That 
was  thie  first  day  I  ever  saw  John  Murj)hy,  Avhoni  everybody 
now  knows  as  a  driver  of  trotters.  He  rode  a  black  horse 
under  saddle  for  a  man  named  Douglas  against  a  chestnut 
horse  that  went  in  harness  and  was  driven  by  Bob  Champ- 
lin.  The  glory  of  that  race  decided  me  as  to  my  future 
course.  I  went  home  and  dreamed  of  the  trotters,  but 
daren't  talk  much  about  them,  as  the  farmer  was  a  good 
deal  inclined  to  religion,  and  very  little  to  horses. 

The  following  spring  I  took  my  bundle  and  broke  away 
from  the  farm,  determined  to  see  what  there  was  in  life.  I 
was  then  about  thirteen  years  old,  and  my  first  move  was  to 
drop  in  on  a  man  named  Bowen,  who  had  a  son  about  my 
age.  Mr.  Bowen  had  the  reputation  of  being  the  greatest 
horse  fancier  in  that  jDart  of  the  countrj^  He  bought  a 
great  many  horses  to  ship  on  to  New  York.  I  made  myself 
generally  useful  in  rubbing  and  leading  the  horses  about. 
It  was  at  this  time  that  the  oil  excitement  broke  out  in 
Pennsylvania.,  and  I  went  down  there  to  explore  the  coun- 
try and  look  for  a  fortune.  AVith  the  little  money  I  had  I 
went  into  a  partnership  with  a  man  in  a  pair  of  horses  and 
a  flatboat,  drawing  oil.  There  was  plenty  of  money  in  the 
scheme,  but  it  came  too  slowly  for  me,  so  I  finally  sold  out 
my  interest  in  the  concern  and  went  to  'New  York  City. 
While  there  I  met  a  gentleman  from  Buffalo,  who  was 
interested  in  a  crockery  store.     This  man' s  name  was  George 


-  LIFE   WITH   THE   TROTTERS.  ^  7 

E.  Ne^vlnan,  and  after  a  little  talk  lie  made  me  believe 
I  would  make  a  better  crockery  merchant  than  anything 
else.  The  result  of  that  talk  was  that  I  accompanied  him 
to  Buffalo  to  go  into  his  store  and  learn  the  business.  When 
I  found  that  the  first  step  in  the  life  of  a  crockery  merchant 
was  to  carry  out  portions  of  the  stock  in  a  hand  basket,  I 
shied  at  the  first  turn,  and  that  was  the  end  of  my  life  as  a 
merchant.  I  asked  if  there  was  a  race-track  in  the  neigh- 
borhood, and  was  directed  to  what  has  since  been  tlie  famous 
mile  track  at  Buffalo.  On  reaching  there,  I  inquired  for 
the  best  trainer,  and,  fortunately  for  myself,  I  was  directed 
to  Mr.  John  Stevenson.  I  said  to  him  that  I  was  looking 
for  a  chance  to  learn  to  be  a  driver  of  trotters  He  replied  that 
my  size  and  age  were  a  little  against  me,  but  that  if  I  could 
wait  he  could  see  no  reason  why  in  time  I  might  not  succeed. 
We  struck  up  a  mutual  admiration  right  there,  and  I  laid 
down  my  bundle.  Mr.  Stevenson  took  a  great  interest  in 
me,  and  gave  me  everv  oi)xio]'tunity  to  not  only  learn,  but 
also  to  practice  driving.  I  have  never  forgotten  liis  kind- 
ness, and  never  go  near  his  city  without  paying  him  a  per- 
sonal visit. 

The  first  horse  I  ever  drove  was  a  stallion  called  Pelham 
Tartar,  and  that  belonged  to  Mr.  C.  J.  Wells,  at  that  time 
mayor  of  Buffalo,  and  always  a  stanch  friend  of  the  trot- 
ting turf.  I  remember  distinctly  that  I  was  so  small  and 
short  that  it  was  necessary  for  me  to  put  my  feet  on  the 
cross-bar  of  the  sulky,  my  legs  not  being  long  enough  to 
enable  me  to  reach  the  stirrups.  I  don' t  think  that  Mr. 
Stevenson  ever  had  a  horse  on  his  j)lace  that  he  took  as 
much  pains  in  training  as  he  did  with  me.  Pelham  Tartar 
was  a  handsome  lu'own  stallion  about  sixteen  hands  high. 
He  was  bred  in  Canada,  and  at  that  time  was  looked  upon 
as  a  very  promising  horse  in  the  way  of  a  trotter.  He  was 
fine-gaited,  perfectly  level-headed,  and  I  remember  him,  not 
only  as  the  first  horse  of  which  I  had  charge,  but  also  as 
the  first  one  that  I  ever  drove  a  mile  in  three  minutes.  The 
first  day  I  drove  Pelham  Tartar  Mr.   Stevenson  had  out  a 


8  LIFE    WITH   TIIK   TKOTTEKS. 

gray  mare  belonging  to  Mr.  Henry  C.  Jewett,  who  has  since 
then  become  well  known  as  one  of  the  leading  breeders  of  the 
country,  and  we  went  a  mile  in  about  three  minutes.  I  felt 
very  i^roud  of  my  work,  as  Mr.  Stevenson  told  me  that  I  had 
performed  as  well  as  he  could  have  done  himself.  Mr. 
Stevenson,  probably  in  order  to  keep  a  watchful  eye  on  my 
young  efforts,  gave  me  the  pole  and  laid  on  my  Mdieel  with 
the  gray  mare  during  the  trip,  advising  me  at  different 
parts  of  the  mile  what  to  do,  and  telling  me  about  how  well  we 
were  going.  If  he  had  not  told  me  it  was  three  minutes  I 
would  have  thought  it  was  two,  which  fact  will  give  an 
idea  of  how  little  I  knew  at  that  time  about  different  rates 
of  speed,  and  it  also  goes  to  show  liow  exhilarated  a  man 
can  become  behind  a  trotter. 

I  spent  that  season  in  Mr.  Stevenson' s  employ ;  and 
another  horse  that  I  sometimes  trained  was  Byron,  a  chest- 
nut stallion  by  Royal  George,  that  afterward  made  a  record 
of  2:2o|-,  and  has  since  sired  a  number  of  2:30  horses,  as 
well  as  the  dam  of  the  famous  filly  Susie  S.,  that  trotted 
such  a  grand  race  at  St.  Louis  in  1887,  winning  the  fourth 
heat  in  2:20,  and  stam23ing  herself  as  the  best  three-year-old 
out  that  season.  Byron  was  bred  in  Canada,  and  was 
brought  to  Buffalo  by  a  livery-stable  keeper  named  Effner, 
who  in  those  days  managed  to  get  hold  of  about  all  the 
good  horses  that  came>to  the  town  for  sale.  He  saw  that 
Byron  had  some  sjjeed,  and  it  was  not  long  before  he  sold 
him  to  Frank  Perew,  then  as  now  a  solid  citizen  of  Buffalo 
and  iDrominent  in  marine  circles,  and  who  has  always  been 
a  great  admirer  of  trotters.  It  was  just  after  Mr.  Perew  had 
bought  Byron  that  the  stallion  was  sent  to  Mr.  Stevenson's 
stable,  and  in  that  way  came  under  my  observation. 

The  first  dollar  I  ever  earned  for  driving  a  trotter  was 
with  this  horse.  One  day  Mr.  Perew  came  out  with  a  friend 
to  see  Byron,  and  in  the  course  of  some  talk  he  offered  to 
bet  five  dollars  that  I  could  drive  him  a  mile  in  2:40.  The 
bet  Avas  made,  and  I  went  out  with  the  horse  and  drove  him 
a  mile  in  2:38|.     Mr.  Perew  made  me  a  present  of  the  ten 


LIFE   WITH   THE   TKOTTERS.  9 

dollars,  wliicli  I  tliouglit  was  a  good  deal  of  money.  I  don't 
think  there  was  ever  a  time  that  I  was  more  pleased  or  felt 
richer  than  at  that  moment.  This  Avas  my  first  experience 
in  driving  a  horse  against  the  watch,  and  since  then,  with 
Earns,  the  pacer  Johnston,  and  others,  I  have  traveled  from 
the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific  and  f  i-om  Minnesota  to  Kentucky, 
giving  exhibitions  of  speed  with  noted  animals  before  au- 
diences that  sometimes  numbered  fifty  thousand,  and  for  a 
great  deal  of  money,  and  yet  the  satisfaction  of  that  morn- 
ing when  I  sent  Byron  around  the  Buffalo  track,  hoping  he 
would  do  what  his  owner  had  deemed  him  capable  of,  and 
knowing  that  the  performance,  if  successful,  would  be  a 
credit  to  me,  has  never  been  excelled.  I  have  driven  Rarus 
when  the  shouts  of  the  people  could  be  heard  for  blocks 
away,  and  I  have  seen  him  come  down  the  home  stretch  at 
Kansas  City  when  the  crowd  was  so  great  that  there  was 
barely  a  lane  through  the  mass  of  human  beings  for  the 
horse  to  trot.  I  was  excited  enough  then,  and  also  the  first 
time  he  beat  Goldsmith  Maid' s  record  for  me,  and  since  then 
I  have  experienced  the  feeling  of  gratification  that  comes  to 
a  man  when  he  performs  some  feat  in  his  chosen  profession 
that  shows  his  ability;  but  for  all  that,  the  mile  in  2:B8f  with 
Byron  will  always  be  the  star  drive  of  my  early  experiences 
in  the  sulky. 

When  the  trotting  season  was  over  Mr  Stevenson  kindly 
arranged  to  send  me  to  school.  Number  16,  Delaware  street, 
was  the  educational  institution  at  which  I  made  my  debut, 
and  I  want  to  pay  tribute  right  here  to  Mr.  Fullerton,  our 
principal  and  teaclier,  for  his  patience  with  me,  for  I  am 
sure  that  I  not  only  made  many  a  break  myself,  but  also 
caused  other  boys  who  were  naturally  steadily  inclined,  to 
do  likewise. 

After  three  months  at  school  the  days  of  spring  came, 
and  I  went  to  work  with  Mr.  William  King,  who  had  some 
colts  he  wanted  jogged.  But  this  was  rather  slow  work  for 
me,  and  I  soon  began  to  pine  for  tlie  deh'ghts  of  the  race- 
track.    On  stating  the  case  to  Mr.  King  lie  agreed  with  me, 


10  LIFE    WITH   THE   TROTTERS. 

and  I  made  another  change,  this  time  going  with  Mr,  Isaac 
Woodruff,  brother  of  the  celebrated  Hiram  Woodruff;  and 
he  also  seemed  inclined  to  give  me  the  benefit  of  his  long- 
experience,  and  showed  me  everything  that  he  could  in  the 
way  of  training  and  driving  a  trotter.  I  rubbed  for  him  the 
bay  gelding  Derljy,  formerly  called  Dutchman.  This  was 
the  first  horse  that  I  had  regular  charge  of  to  groom;  and  at 
this  point  it  will  be  of  interest  to  young  drivers  and  boys  of 
the  present  generation  who  have  an  interest  in  trotteis,  as 
well  as  some  older  heads  for  whom  the  same  subject  has 
fascinations,  to  tell  something  of  the  old  methods  of  taking- 
care  of  a  trotter.  In  those  days  there  was  no  training  of 
colts,  and  the  pre23aration  of  a  horse  for  a  race  was  some 
thing  that  involved  months  of  time,  and  a  terrific  strain,  not 
only  on  the  constitution  and  legs  of  the  horse,  but  on  the 
minds  and  bodies  of  everybody  connected  with  him.  It  was 
considered  a  work  of  art  to  bring  a  trotter  to  the  post  for 
a  race,  and  really  in  those  days  it  was  necessary  to  fit  a 
horse  with  more  care  than  now,  because  a  trotter  was  liable 
to  be  called  on  at  any  time  to  go  in  any  kind  of  a  race — 
either  in  harness,  under  saddle,  or  to  wagon,  and  to  do  these 
things  at  one,  two,  or  three  miles.  In  other  words,  the 
trotter  of  my  boyhood  days  was  an  animal  from  whicli  not 
only  speed  was  expected,  but  versatility  and  a  tremendous 
amount  of  endurance. 

The  way  we  used  to  handle  an  old-time  trotter  was  about 
like  this :  I  remember  very  distinctly  that  Mr.  Woodruff 
was  an  early  riser.  About  four  o'clock  was  his  usual 
time,  and  to  me  that  seemed  something  terrible.  Our  rou- 
tine of  work  was  this :  First,  the  horse  was  given  a  light 
feed  of  oats  and  his  morning  toilet  made.  Then  he  was 
taken  out  and  led  by  the  halter  for  an  hour,  brought  in, 
groomed,  legs  rubbed,  and  then  we  had  an  early  breakfast. 
After  that  whatever  work  he  was  to  do  in  the  way  of  train- 
ing he  got  then.  They  gave  a  horse  a  great  deal  more  jog- 
ging, and  much  more  sweating  under  blankets  and  hoods, 
and  a  far  greater  amount  of  work  in  various  ways  than  is 


LIFE    WITT!   THE   TKOTTERS.  H 

now  the  custom.  It  was  the  old-fashioned  idea  that  a  horse 
must  be  reduced  in  liesh,  and  they  were  "  drawn"  more  like 
race-horses  than  at  present.  For  instance,  no  one  thought 
of  giving  a  horse  water  the  night  before  his  race.  He  would 
get  a  small  feed  of  hay  and  oats,  and  then  the  muzzle  was 
put  on.  On  the  morning  of  his  race  the  feed  would  be  re- 
duced still  more,  Avith  very  little  water,  and  as  a  rule  the 
horse  was  given  a  good  deal  of  work  on  that  morning. 
While  his  race  was  being  trotted  he  got  very  little  water  be- 
tween heats.  They  clothed  the  trotters  in  those  days  mncli 
more  than  at  present,  and  the  rubbing  and  grooming  was 
something  terrible,  both  to  man  and  horse.  There  Avere 
generally  two  men  to  every  horse,  or  rather  a  man  and  a 
boy,  the  latter  being  called  a  helper;  and  as  a  rule  both 
were  kept  busy  from  morning  till  night  working  around 
the  horse.  I  have  seen  horses  made  so  sore  by  this 
treatment  that  they  would  hardly  let  you  put  a  hand 
on  them,  and  there  is  no  doubt  in  my  mind  that  in  many 
instances  animals  were  made  vicions,  and  their  otherwise 
good  tempers  and  dispositions  ruined  by  this  con- 
stant friction  by  rubbing,  and  working  with  currycombs, 
etc. 

At  the  end  of  this  season  I  made  the  acquaintance  of  Mr. 
J.  C.  Kelly,  a  resident  of  Illinois.  In  the  words  of  Horace 
Greeley,  he  advised  me  to  go  west,  and  the  result  was  that 
I  entered  into  a  contract  with  him  and  went  to  Jacksonville, 
111. ,  where  he  had  a  race-track,  a  livery  stable,  and  a  farm. 
My  duties  were  to  help  him  train  and  drive  and  make 
myself  generally  useful.  I  soon  found  that  in  Kelly  I  had 
struck  a  real  wide-awake,  all-round  horse  jockey.  He  bought 
and  sold  a  great  many  horses  for  the  carriage,  the  road, 
and  for  draught  pur^DOses.  He  could  pick  out  a  horse  that 
was  liable  to  step  along  some  as  quick  as  any  man  1  ever 
saw,  and  after  he  had  selected  him  could  make  the  animal 
show  what  he  was  cajDable  of.  In  him  I  found  a  man  who 
seemed  glad  to  give  me  all  the  points  that  would  be  of  use  to 
me.     I  saw  Kelly  diive  a  good  many  races  for  a  great  deal 


12  LIFE   WITH   THE  TEOTTEKS. 

of  money,  and  I  doubt  very  much  whether  the  boys  of  the 
jDresent  dnj  would  have  much  advantage  over  him.  He 
afterward  located  in  St.  Louis,  where  I  went  with  him  to 
the  old  Abbey  track.  It  was  here  that  I  first  met  some  of 
the  noted  horsemen  of  that  day,  such  as  the  Carr  brothers, 
who  owned  Tackey  and  Dixie  at  that  time.  They  were  two 
gray  mares,  full  sisters,  and  considered  very  well-bred  ones 
for  those  days,  being  by  Pilot,  Jr.,  and  out  of  a  mare  by 
Bellfounder.  They  were  both  hrst-class  race-horses  for 
what  they  could  do,  Tackey  being  i3articularly  hard  to 
beat  in  a  long-distance  race.  Their  owners  were  always 
willing  to  back  them  against  all  comers.  They  were  trained 
at  this  time  by  a  man  named  James  Rutherford.  The  men 
who  owned  the  mares  have  since  become  prominent  citizens 
of  St,  Louis,  and  Tackey  has  made  herself  famous  as  a 
brood  mare  by  producing  the  stallion  Pilot  Medium,  that  is 
the  sire  of  the  gray  gelding  Jack,  with  which  my  friend 
Budd  Doble  won  so  much  money  last  year,  including  the 
big  810,000  stake  at  Rochester  ;  Naiad  Queen,  that  my  other 
old  friend,  Jack  Phillips,  drove  to  a  record  of  2:20^  ;  Tackey, 
Jr.,  that  produced  Onie  D.,  that  my  other  friend,  handsome 
Jimmy  Goldsmith,  went  a  mile  with  better  than  2:20  last 
year  ;  and  Classleader,  the  gray  gelding  that  led  his  class 
home  in  2: 22 J  over  the  Cleveland  track  in  1887  under  my 
pilotage.  I  think  of  these  things  now,  when  I  come  to  put 
my  experiences  on  paper^  and  it  causes  a  feeling  of  min- 
gled regret  and  pride  to  pass  through  a  man  as  he  recalls 
how  many  years  have  gone  by  since  the  time  he  saw  old 
Tacke}'  trotting  at  St.  Louis  and  the  day  that  he  drove  her 
son  under  the  wire  a  winner  at  Cleveland.  Tackey  was  a 
crack  in  her  day,  and  her  record  of  2:26  is  fully  as  cred- 
itable as  one  of  2:20  would  be  in  these  times.  She  has  been 
a  wonderfullj^  good  brood  mare,  just  as  she  was  a  good 
track  mare,  and  in  her  and  her  full  sister,  Dixie,  the  Pilot, 
Jr.,  family  has  a  coui)le  of  representatives  that  sustained  its 
reputation  well  at  all  stages  of  their  lives.  Dixie  also  pro- 
duced a  trotter,  it  being  the  brown  mare  Dixie  Sj)rague, 


LIFE   WITH  THE  TKOTTEES,  13 

that  made  a  record  of  2:25^  in  lier  first  race,  she  being,  by 
Governor  Spragne. 

My  old-time  friend  Matt  Colvin  was  then  in  the  heyday 
in  liis  glory,  and  associated  with  his  name  will  always  be 
that  of  the  stallion  Pilot  Temple,  a  son  of  Pilot,  Jr.,  that  had 
the  distinction  of  being  out  of  the  dam  of  Flora  Temple,  the 
first  trotter  to  beat  2:20.  In  all  jnj  experience  I  have  never 
seen  a  harder  i)air  to  beat  than  Matt  and  Pilot  Temple.  As 
hustlers  they  were  first  class.  Pilot  Temple  was  Miat  is 
known  as  a  "  handy' '  horse.  Whenever  he  was  tired  Colvin 
would  grab  him  up  in  his  arms  for  a  few  jumps  and  let  him 
run,  and  then  set  him  down  trotting  again.  That  was  more 
feasible  in  those  days  than  now,  when  the  judges  are  strong 
lor  honest  trotting  during  the  entire  mile.  Pilot  Temple 
trotted  for  many  a  year  over  all  kinds  of  tracks.  In  all  kinds 
of  weather,  rain  or  shine,  hot  or  cold,  the  little  bay  was 
always  ready  for  his  race,  and  he  received  plenty  of 
training  besides,  for  in  those  days  a  man  who  didn'  t  drive 
his  horse  an  hour  or  so  every  day  was  thought  to  be  neg- 
lecting his  business.  After  living  to  be  over  thirty  years  of 
age  Pilot  Temx)le  died  in  St.  Louis  a  few  years  ago.  Matt 
Colvin,  who  drove  him  for  so  many  years,  is  still  alive  and  a 
resident  of  Kansas  City,  able  to  hold  his  own  with  any  of 
the  new  drivers.  Though  over  seventy  years  of  age,  Matt 
has  gone  west  to  grow  up  with  the  country. 

Another  famous  perf ormer^  and  a  great  pacer  in  his  day, 
that  was  at  the  St.  Louis  track,  was  Billy  Boice.  He  was 
a  member  of  the  Corbeau  family,  and  a  bright  bay  horse 
about  fifteen  and  a  half  hands  high.  He  resembled  the 
latter-day  i^acer  Johnston  very  much  in  his  gait  and  forma- 
tion, and  was  fast  and  game,  being  able  to  go  one  or  two 
mile  heats;  and  after  pacing  a  good  many  races  in  harness 
he  was  ridden  a  mile  in  2:14|  by  John  Murphy,  the  occasion 
being  a  race  at  Buffalo  between  Billy  Boice  and  RoUa  Gold- 
dust,  that  was  a  celebrated  saddler  of  those  days.  This 
was  the  first  time  that  2:15  was  ever  beaten  by  a  pacer, 
either  in  harness  or  under  saddle,  and  as  it  was  considered 


14  LIFE  WITH  THE  TEOTTERS. 

something  wonderful  in  that  day,  and  I  saw  the  race,  I 
will  give  some  idea  of  how  Jim  Rockey  and  Murx^hy  rode 
their  respective  horses. 

Rolla  Golddust  won  tlio  first  heat,  Boice  making  two 
breaks,  but  in  the  second  mile  Boice  went  away  steadily, 
and  took  the  pole  on  the  turn,  never  being  headed,  finishing 
the  mile  in  2:14^;  and  it  should  be  noted  that  this  time  by 
a  pacer  under  saddle  was  never  beaten  until  Johnston  did  it 
in  1888  at  Cleveland,  where  George  Starr  rode  him  a  mile 
in  2:14.  On  this  latter  occasion  I  drove  the  runner  that 
accompanied  Johnston,  and  I  think  that  he  could  have 
gone  better  than  he  did,  but  Mr.  Starr' s  idea  was  to  simply 
win  and  be  satisfied  with  that.  This  mile,  in  2:14|-  by  Billy 
Boice,  shows  what  a  wonderful  horse  he  was  in  his  day,  for 
at  that  time  a  2:20  horse  wns  an  absolute  novelty,  and  as 
for  any  harness  animal,  trotter  or  XDacer,  going  a  mile  in 
2:15,  it  had  not  been  thought  of.  Of  course,  since  then 
there  have  been  a  good  many  2:15  pacers,  but  it  has  taken 
fifteen  years  of  training,  iDreeding,  and  driving,  and  all 
the  improved  construction  of  vehicles  to  bring  them  down 
to  the  present  standard,  so  that  Boice  must  have  been  a 
phenomenon.  I  have  no  doubt  that,  with  his  natural  speed 
and  the  improved  facilities  in  the  way  of  tracks,  better 
vehicles,  etc.,  he  would  have  been  a  star  performer  in  the 
present  day  and  able  to  hold  his  own  with  the  best. 

From  St.  Louis  I  took  a  tri]3  with  a  Spaniard  to  Havana, 
Cuba.  This  Spaniard  was  buying  a  shipload  of  horses  to 
take  there.  I  thought  it  would  be  a  novelty  to  see  a  foreign 
country,  and  so  arranged  with  this  gentleman  to  go  with 
the  first  consignment  of  horses.  Havana  was  a  dull  place 
to  me.  No  race-tracks,  no  trotters,  and  nobody  that  I 
could  see  who  could  talk  English,  and  as  that  was  the  only 
language  I  knew  I  was  what  might  be  called  a  homesick 
boy.  I  stated  the  case  to  my  new-found  friend,  and  he 
sympathized  with  me  and  released  me  from  my  contract. 
Then  I  concluded  to  ship  for  New  York.  Taking  the  first 
boat  for  the  United  States,  I  reached  New  York  City  in 


LIFE   WITH    THE   TR0TTEE8.  15 

April,  and  made  the  acquaintance  of  a  man  who  was  my 
friend  nntil  death  claimed  him— ]\Ir.  Dan  Mace.  I  could 
spin  a  long  yarn  here  concerning  my  experience  with  the 
man  who,  in  his  time,  was  not  only  a  master  of  his  profes- 
sion, but  the  oldest  one  in  it ;  but  there  are  so  many  inci- 
dents connected  with  my  stay  with  Mace,  and  so  much 
to  be  said  of  his  methods  in  the  training  and  driving  of 
trotters,  that  I  shall  reserve  that  for  a  subsequent  chapter 
which  will  deal  exclusively  with  that  subject. 

I  had  met  Mace  once,  years  before,  at  Buffalo,  and  he 
had  said  to  me  that  if  I  ever  visited  ISTew  York  he  would 
be  glad  to  have  me  come  and  see  him.  It  was  on  this  invi- 
tation of  the  past  that  I  walked  into  his  office.  He  had  a 
stable  on  Forty-ninth  street  near  Broadway,  and  kept  his 
training-stable  at  the  Fashion  track.  Long  Island  This  Avas 
in  1864,  and  at  that  time  Mace  was  the  recognized  master 
of  his  profession. 

In  looks,  Dan  Mace  was  not  a  handsome  man.  He  weighed 
about  140  i)ounds,  with  short  legs  and  wonderfully  strong 
body  and  arms.  His  eyes  and  hair  were  very  black  at  this 
time.  In  disposition  he  was  as  brave  as  any  man  I  ever 
saw.  I  don' t  think  there  was  anything  in  the  world  he  was 
afraid  of.  His  temper  was  perfection.  In  all  my  years  of 
exparience  with  him  (and  I  knew  him  as  well  as  any  man  could 
know  another),  I  never  saw  Mace  out  of  temper.  No  matter 
what  x^rovocation  he  might  have  had  he  always  seemed  to 
control  himself  to  perfection.  His  age  was  an  uncertain 
quantity.  I  never  saw  anyone  who  knew  just  what  it  was, 
and  he  never  would  tell.  At  that  time  Mace  numbered 
among  his  patrons  such  well  known  turfites  as  John  Mor- 
rissey,  Henry  Genet,  William  TurnbuU,  who  was  the  life- 
long friend  of  Commodore  Yanderbilt ;  Edward  Jones,  the 
celebrated  i:)olitician  ;  Governor  Sprague,  of  Rhode  Island ; 
Uncle  Ben  Wright,  of  Boston,  who  always  had  more  match 
races  on  hand  than  any  man  I  ever  saw  ;  W.  P.  Balch,  now 
of  Boston;  Ed  Maynard,  of  the  same  city;  "Loosh" 
Appleby,  who  has  since  become  celebrated  as  one  of  the 


16  LIFE   WITH    THE    TKOTTEK8. 

leading  bookmakers  on  the  running  turf  ;  William  Saunders, 
better  known  as  "  Uncle  Bill,"  who  owned  at  that  time  and 
since  some  of  the  most  celebrated  horses  in  the  country  ; 
Z.  E.  Simmons  (of  whom  I  shall  have  something  to  say- 
later),  and  many  others  whose  names  do  not  occur  to  me  just 
now,  but  who  were  among  the  best  citizens  of  ISTew  York, 
and  its  wealthiest  and  most  respected  men. 

Mace,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  he  was  not  a  man  of  book- 
learning,  was  always  popular  with,  and  resjiected  by,  his 
patrons.  Men  who  did  not  know  Dan  Mace  got  a  false 
impression  as  to  his  talent  in  matters  outside  of  the  sulky. 
I  have  never  heard  anyone  question  his  ability  when  he  sat 
behind  a  trotter  at  any  stage  of  the  game,  but  I  have  heard 
men  say  that  his  business  capacity  outside  of  that  was  not 
good.  My  impression  of  Mace  is  that  he  was  a  much 
smarter  business  man  than  anyone  gave  him  credit  for 
being.  Mace  made  money  by  the  basketful  and  gave  it 
away  the  same,  never  making  any  effort  until  the  last  few 
years  of  his  life  to  save  anything.  To  prove  that  his  busi- 
ness ability  was  good,  I  may  say  that  in  the  last  five  years 
of  his  life,  when  his  health  was  bad,  he  earned  and  saved 
something  like  $50,000,  and  it  seems  to  me  this  would  be  a 
difficult  task  for  a  man  to  accomplish  unless  he  had  some 
real  business  cajDacity.  I  think  Mace's  great  success  was 
due,  not  only  to  his  being  a  natural  genius  in  the  matter  of 
horses,  but  also  because  he  was  a  deep  student,  and  the 
most  industrious  man  I  ever  saw  in  the  business.  In  addi- 
tion to  these  qualities,  Mace  had  the  very  rare  one  of 
absolute  fidelity  to  his  patrons.  If  one  of  the  men  who 
were  giving  him  horses  to  be  trained  was  to  (perhaps  under 
the  influence  of  a  few  glasses  of  champagne  and  a  good 
dinner)  match  his  road  horse  against  another  animal  of  the 
same  class,  and  send  him  to  Mace  to  be  trained,  Dan  would 
goat  that  animal  with  as  much  patience  and  determination, 
and  spend  as  much  time  and  personal  attention  on  him  as 
though  the  animal  was  a  veritable  flyer — a  Maud  S.  or  a 
Dexter  of  its  day.     This  was  a  religion  with   Mace.     It 


LIFE    WITir   THE   TROTTERS.  17 

made  no  difference  to  him  wlietlier  tlie  horse  was  a  good  one 
or  a  iDOor  one;  if  he  undertook  to  train liim  andtool^  a  man's 
money  for  doing  tliat  worlv,  the  animal  was  fitted  and  driven 
to  the  very  best  of  his  ability,  which  meant  that  he  was 
prepared  as  well  as  any  man  in  America  could  do  the  job. 
It  was  only  by  the  exercise  of  unceasing  industry  that  he 
was  enabled  to  supervise  the  care  of  his  many  horses  as  he 
did  for  the  best  years  of  his  life.  He  was  the  first  man  up 
in  the  morning  and  the  last  to  bed  at  night,  and  during 
every  moment  of  the  time,  except  when  he  was  eating,  he 
was  doing  something.  I  have  never  seen  any  man  who 
could  accomx)lish  as  much  in  the  way  of  training  a  stable  of 
horses  as  Dan  Mace.  He  could  give  more  orders,  ride  more 
miles,  look  after  more  details,  and  give  everything  in  general 
better  attention  than  two  ordinary  men.  Mace' s  treatment 
of  everybody  he  came  in  contact  with  was  of  the  very  best. 
If  a  boy  blacked  his  boots  he  was  well  treated  and  liberally 
paid.  If  a  boy  rubbed  a  horse  for  him  Mace  treated  liim 
like  a  gentleman  and  paid  him  like  a  prince.  Money  was 
never  an  object  to  him. 

When  I  introduced  myself  to  Mr.  Mace  I  told  him  I  was 
anxious  to  be  a  trainer  and  driver.  He  asked  me  if  I  thought 
I  fully  understood  the  care  of  a  trotter  while  in  training.  I 
replied  that  I  did  not.  He  then  advised  me  to  first  master 
that  x:)art  of  horse-training,  saying  that  he  considered  it 
of  as  much  importance  to  have  a  horse  x3roperly  groomed 
and  cared  for  while  in  training  as  any  other  part  of  the 
preparation.  This  was  a  golden  rule  with  Mace,  and  my 
experience  of  thirty  years  with  the  trotters  has  proven  to 
me  that  it  is  just  as  good  to-day  as  it  was  when  Mace  told 
it  to  me,  and  that  the  personal  care  that  is  given  to  a  trotter 
may  make  or  mar  the  horse  either  for  track  or  road  use.  I 
then  went  to  w^ork  for  Mace  with  that  understanding,  and 
he  placed  me  under  a  man  by  the  name  of  "  Lucy  Jimmy," 
who  has  since  become  as  celebrated  in  his  line  of  business, 
the  care  of  trotting  horses,  as  Mace  was  in  his.  Tliis  man's 
right  name  is  Jimmy  Kenney,  but  like  many  another  rub- 


18  LIFE   WITH   THE  TEOTTERS. 

ber  he  got  his  nom  deplume  from  a  horse  he  looked  after, 
in  Jimniy's  case  it  being  the  famons  mare  Lucy,  that 
()rrin  Hickok  drove  in  her  best  races,  and  that  became  so 
celebrated  as  the  stable  companion  of  Goldsmith  Maid.  In 
"Lucy  Jimmy"  I  found  a  good  friend,  and  as  distinct  a 
(iharacter  as  I  have  ever  met.  He  was,  without  exception, 
i  he  most  faithful  fellow  I  ever  saw,  and  in  all  his  half  cen- 
tury of  connection  with  the  trotting  turf  he  has  never,  to  my 
]5;nowledge,  made  a  false  move  or  break.  His  absolute  lidel- 
f.ty  to  the  interests  of  the  man  for  whom  he  is  working  is 
something  not  often  met  with.  Twenty  years  after  I  was 
]\is  x^npil,  and  at  a  time  when  I  had  driven  horses  to  the 
best  records  of  the  day,  both  at  trotting  and  jDacing,  this 
trait  of  Jimmy's  character  was  illustrated  to  me  in  a  very 
ludicrous  a,nd  convincing  manner.  It  came  about  in  this 
way : 

Along  in  1883  or  1884  my  old-time  friend,  companion,  and 
adviser.  Counsellor  Crawford,  had  in  his  stable  a  couple  of 
stallions  that  were  among  the  cracks  in  their  class.  One 
was  the  bay  horse  Yoltaire,  and  the  other  a  chestnut  stallion, 
Robert  McGregor,  that  is  about  as  handsome  a  horse  as  one 
will  find  in  a  day's  Journey.  At  the  time  of  Avhich  I  speak, 
Jimmy  rubbed  Voltaire,  and  Mr.  Crawford  had  the  horse 
entered  in  a  race  at  Grand  Rapids,  Mich.,  and  as  there  was 
no  one  there  to  drive  him  Jimmy  concluded  to  have  me,  his 
old-time  pupil,  handle  him  in  the  race.  He  came  to  see  me 
about  it,  and  the  incident  brought  up  a  train  of  thought 
regarding  the  day  when  I  went  over  to  the  Fashion  track, 
a  boy,  to  learn  to  be  a  trotting-horse  driver.  Jimmy  stated 
the  case  to  me  and  asked  if  I  would  drive  Yoltaire.  Of 
course  I  consented.  Jimmy  said  that  the  horse  had  a  chance 
to  win,  perhai)s,  second  money,  and  thought  I  had  better 
lay  him  up  a  heat  or  two,  let  the  others  fight,  and  then  get 
my  position  in  the  last  end  of  the  race.  I  thought  it  a  good 
idea,  and  told  him  so,  but  when  Ave  got  the  word  for  the  first 
heat  several  of  the  other  horses  made  a  break,  and  I  con- 
cluded that  Avould  be  a  good  chance  for  me  to  win  the  heat 


LIFE   WITH   THE   TROTTERS.  19 

and  secure  my  i^ortion  of  ilie  money.  So  I  cut  loose  right 
then  and  there,  and  after  a  hard  struggle  succeeded  in  get- 
ting the  stallion  to  the  wire  ahead  of  the  others.  As  I  came 
back  to  the  stand  Jimmy  was  standing  there,  bucket  in 
hand,  and  regarding  me  with  a  look  of  half  disapproval.  I 
saw  in  an  instant  what  the  trouble  was,  and  on  dismounting 
from  the  sulky  said  to  the  old  man  :  "Well,  Jimmy,  I  didn't 
drive  exactly  as  you  directed."  This  confession  on  my  part 
evidently  mollified  the  old  man,  for  he  rei^lied  in  a  friendly 
tone  :   "  'Tis  all  right ;  yer  orders  were  not  positive." 

When  Jimmy  took  me  in  charge  at  the  Fashion  track  he 
had  a  mare  he  was  rubbing  that  belonged  to  Mr.  William 
Humphrey,  avIio  after Avard  became  famous  as  the  owner  of 
Judge  Fullerton.  This  mare's  name  Avas  Tempest,  and  she 
was  matched  against  a  horse  that  belonged  to  Mr.  John  Har- 
beck.  I  recollect  distinctly  that  she  had  a  great  deal  of 
trouble  with  her  feet,  and  a  part  of  my  duties  was  to  get  up 
early  in  the  moi^ning  and  lead  her  out  in  the  long  grass 
while  the  dew  was  on  it,  in  order  that  what  the  poet  calls 
"the  tears  of  night"  might  allay  the  fever  in  her  feet,  and 
perhaps,  as  in  case  of  the  race-horse  War  Jig,  that  Jim  Mur- 
I^hy,  the  well-known  running-horse  man,  owned  and  trained, 
it  might  prove  efficacious  where  all  human  remedies  had 
failed,  and  induce  a  cure  that  could  not  otherwise  be  brought 
about.  Murphy  tells  to  this  day  tha.t  when  he  bought  War 
Jig  the  horse  was  broken  down,  but  that  in  leading  him 
through  the  dew-laden  grass  the  son  of  War  Dance  stepi^ed 
upon  a  leaf  of  shamrock  and  the  juice  from  this  had  such 
a  magical  effect  upon  the  injured  leg  that  ever  thereafter  it 
was  the  best  of  the  four.  Whether  the  dew  did  it  or  not. 
Tempest  came  to  her  race  in  good  shape.  Mr.  Humphrey 
and  all  his  friends  had  her  well  backed;  Jimmy  himself  had 
a  few  pool  tickets  on  her,  and  by  way  of  showing  me  that 
my  services  had  been  appreciated  he  bought  one  small  pool 
for  me.  I  don't  think  that  either  Mr.  Mace,  who  drove 
Tempest,  or  Jimmy,  who  had  rubbed  the  mare,  watched  her 
any  closer  or  took  any  more  intei-est  in  the  race  than  I  did — 


20  LIFE   WITH   THE  TKOTTERS. 

not  SO  much  for  my  pool  ticket,  but  because  I  had  become 
tlioronglily  interested  in  my  business  and  was  anxious  to 
learn  all  I  could.  Temx)est  won  easily,  and  we  were  all 
correspondingly  Joyful. 

I  count  among  the  happiest  days  of  my  life  those  that 
I  sjDent  as  Jimmy\s  pupil.  While  he  was  willing  to  work 
all  the  time  himself  he  gave  me  a  fair  share  of  time  to  sleep 
and  eat,  go  fishing,  and  run  foot  races  with  the  other  boys. 
In  those  days  I  was  considerable  of  asiDrinter,and  could  stei> 
oft*  any  distance,  from  a  hundred  yards  up,  and  always  get 
my  share  of  the  money,  thereby  replenishing  my  little  store 
of  cash,  which  in  the  case  of  rubbers  is  never  too  large. 
Jimmy  was  always  willing  to  back  me  for  his  pile  against 
anybody  of  my  size  or  age,  even  going  so  far  on  one  occa- 
sion as  to  match  me  to  lift  a  weight ;  which  match,  by  the 
way,  I  won. 

After  spending  sometime  under  Jimmy's  tuition,  I  was 
thought  capable  of  taking  charge  of  a  horse  myself,  and  was 
given  a  chestnut  gelding  called  William  H.  Taylor,  owned 
at  that  time  by  the  Hon.  Erastus  Corning,  of  Albany,  a  gen- 
tleman who  has  always  been  x^rominent  in  national  j^olitics, 
who  was  a  great  friend  of  President  Lincoln,  and  who  in 
his  latter  days  has  been  a  breeder  of  trotters,  having  had, 
among  others,  the  celebrated  gelding  George  Palmer,  the 
stallion  Harry  Clay;  and  even  now  he  has  in  the  stud  in 
Kentucky  a  son  of  Harry  Clay,  called  Shawmut,  that  has  a 
record  of  2:26.  I  kei)t  this  j)osition  for  a  year,  and  at  the 
end  of  that  time  Mr.  Mace  told  me  he  thought  I  had  better 
try  to  start  out  training  horses  myself.  He  said  not  to  work 
for  anyone  on  a  salary,  but  to  branch  out,  and  it  would  be 
better  to  drive  a  2:40  horse  under  my  own  management  than 
to  drive  the  best  trotter  in  the  land  and  work  on  a  salary 
for  any  man.  He  argued  that  the  first  thing  a  man  should 
do  was  to  make  a  name  for  himself.  My  subsequent  expe- 
rience convinced  me  that  in  this,  as  in  many  other  things, 
Mace  was  right. 

About  this  time  I  made  the  acquaintance  of  a  character 


LIFE   WITH   THE   TROTTEES.  21 

by  the  name  of  Jolm  Suyclam.  He  was  what  you  would 
call  a  country  horseman  ;  at  one  time  had  an  hiterest  in  a 
stage  line  and  lived  in  Kingston,  N.  Y.  Through  the  win- 
ter I  had  been  telling  Mr.  Suydam  of  my  hopes  and  pros- 
pects, and  he  said  he  had  two  friends  who  lived  in  Columbia 
County  on  the  Hudson  River,  and  that  they  had  a  farm  and 
track,  and  he  thought  they  would  like  to  make  arrange- 
ments with  me  to  go  there  and  train  some  colts  they  had. 
He  also  said  he  had  a  friend  of  the  name  of  Lasher,  a  hotel 
keejDer,  who  had  a  horse  called  Black  Doctor  that  could  trot 
a  mile  in  2:50.  Through  his  influence  I  was  given  the  posi- 
tion, and  Black  Doctor  was  the  first  horse  I  ever  had  to 
train  under  my  own  management ;  also  the  first  horse  I  ev^er 
drove  in  a  race.  He  was  a  handsome  black  gelding,  about 
fifteen  and  a  half  hands  high.  He  was  a  good  actor  and 
breaker.  I  staii:ed  in  to  take  care  of  him  myself,  as  well  as 
to  train  him,  rightly  arguing  that  I  could  not  afford  to  hire 
too  much  heli3,  and  thinking  that  Avith  the  experience  I  had 
I  ought  to  be  able  to  rub  him  as  well  as  any  man  I  could  hire. 
I  soon  found  that  the  Doctor  could  trot  a  mile  in  about  2:40, 
and  you  may  be  sure  that  I  keiDt  that  to  myself,  and  my 
first  move  was  to  enter  him  in  a  race  where  he  would  not 
have  to  go  better  than  about  three  minutes.  Then  i  sent 
word  to  the  owner,  and  he  came  over  the  day  of  the  race, 
bet  what  money  he  could  that  the  horse  would  win,  and 
when  the  bell  tai^ped  I  went  out  with  my  war  paint  on  to 
make  the  best  fight  I  could  for  the  money,  and  at  the  same 
time  to  make  my  bow  to  the  public  as  a  professional  trainer 
and  driver. 

The  track  Avas  laid  out  on  a  man's  farm,  without  any 
fence  or  grand  stand,  and  there  was  only  a  little  i3latform 
built  for  the  judges  tq  stand  on.  There  was  no  i^oolselling, 
everybody  betting  his  money  out  of  hand,  and  probably 
five  hundred  people  were  on  hand  to  witness  the  contest. 
There  were  no  four-in-hand  drags  there,  no  band  of  music 
playing  French  operas  or  German  symx^honies,  no  beautiful 
club  house    with  its    balconies  filled  with  pretty  women, 


22  LIFK   AVITII    TIIK   TIIOTTEES. 

whose  bright  toilets,  set  off  against  the  green  of  the  sward 
and  the  bhie  of  the  sky,  make  the  picture  more  attractive  ; 
no  i30olseller,  shrieking  at  the  top  of  his  voice  to  get  the 
money  in  at  the  best  odds;  no  brightly  painted  sulkies,  with 
spidery  \vheels  that  flashed  in  the  sunlight ;  no  officious 
policeman  to  grab  the  small  boys  who  were  trying  to  get 
under  the  fence  and  let  the  man  with  the  badge  walk  over 
the  horses  ;  no  drivers  with  silk  jackets,  waxed  moustaches, 
and  a  general  air  of  contentment  and  prosperity  ;  and  in 
those  days  neither  my  old  antagonist,  T.  J.  Yail,  ex-secre- 
tary of  the  National  Trotting  Association,  or  the  organiza- 
tion of  which  he  was  formanj^  years  the  head  and  front,  had 
been  thought  of  in  connection  with  trotting.  The  drivers 
appeared,  each  in  a  costume  of  his  own,  mostly  consisting 
of  an  absence  of  coat,  with  a  hat  or  cap  drawn  tightly  over 
the  head  so  that  the  wind  made  by  the  speed  of  the  horse 
would  not  disarrange  it,  and  the  sulkies  were  about  as  much 
like  the  present  ones  as  an  improved  two-wheel  hay-rake 
would  be.  They  were  big,  heav}",  and  clumsy,  and  instead 
of  being  built  on  the  most  scientific  princii^les,  they  were 
high-seated,  with  shafts  so  big  that  nowadays  they  Avould 
be  more  fit  for  an  express  Avagon  than  a  race  vehicle.  I 
mention  these  things  to  show  horsemen  of  the  present  day 
to  what  handicaps  the  old-time  trotters  were  subjected.  I 
felt  when  I  started  in  this  race  a  good  deal  as  I  did  when  I 
sjDoke  my  first  piece  at  school — a  little  timid— but  made  up 
my  mind  to  give  them  the  best  I  had  in  the  shop,  win  or  lose. 
1  had  heard  some  stories  about  the  speed  of  one  or  two  of 
the  animals  I  had  to  contend  with,  but  we  had  not  gone  far 
in  the  first  mile  before  it  was  evident  they  were  all  at  my 
mercy.  Black  Doctor  won  in  straight  heats,  and  the  best 
time  was  about  three  minutes.  I  was  looked  upon  by  the 
crowd  as  a  wonder.  A  youngster  that  could  come  in  with 
a  green  horse  and  beat  all  the  old  timers  was  not  often 
heard  of  in  those  days,  and  I  was  a  phenomenon.  From 
that  day  business  came  in,  and  I  was  able  to  employ  a  couple 
of  rubbers,  spread  out  with  a  few  new  tools;  I  found  a  man 


LIFE   WITH   THE   TROTTERS.  23 

who  was  willing -to  buy  a  horse  or  two,  and  started  with  my 
stable  for  the  ]3umpkin  fairs. 

At  this  time  I  got  hold  of  a  brown  mare  that  I  named 
Lady  Sali^augh,  in  compliment  to  a  friend  of  mine,  and  she 
was  afterward  called  Constance.  When  I  got  her  this 
mare  was  good  for  a  mile  in  about  three  minutes,  but  after 
about  two  months  of  careful  handling  she  showed  me  2:38, 
which  in  those  days  was  a  clip  that  would  get  the  money 
almost  anywhere.  In  fact  w^e  thought  we  had  w^hat  the  boys 
call  "a cinch"  on  all  the  three-minute  x)urses.  We  trotted 
through  Columbia  and  Dutchess  Counties  wdth  fair  success, 
and  then  the  whole  outfit  crossed  over  to  Orange  County, 
the  centre  of  horse-breeding  in  New  York,  and  where  all 
the  crack  j)erformers  of  the  day  were  certain  to  be  found. 
There  we  fell  in  with  such  veterans  of  the  sulky  as  Bill 
Bodine,  the  first  man  that  ever  drove  Goldsmith  Maid;  Ike 
Hoyt,  Jess  Woods,  Jersey  Bill,  who  sold  Goldsmith  Maid 
to  j\lden  Goldsmith  for  $600;  Jim  Post,  wdio  w^as  afterward 
a  poolseller,  and  W.  C.  Trimble,  wdio  has  since  had  some  of 
the  most  noted  horses  in  the  land,  and  w^hose  fitting  of 
Garnet  tw^o  years  ago  and  giving  him  a  record  of  2:19  is  still 
fresh  in  the  public  mind,  and  a  good  many  of  the  pool- 
buyers  remember  it  sadly,  as  it  showed  that  the  old  man's 
hand  had  not  lost  its  cunning.  We  started  Lady  Salpaugh 
in  the  three-minute  class,  and  after  a  consultation  with  her 
owner  concluded  it  w^ould  be  best  to  lay  her  up  the  first 
heat,  wdiich  w^as  done.  In  the  second  heat  I  went  out  to 
win,  but  in  si^ite  of  all  I  could  do  the  mare  was  beaten. 
Jersey  Bill,  wdio  had  a  few  tickets  on  the  mare,  came  to  the 
stall  and  gave  me  a  little  advice  in  the  matter  of  driving, 
which  tips  I  followed  in  the  third  heat,  and  landed  the 
mare  a  winner.  From  that  time  she  won  easily.  I  trotted 
the  Lady  a  number  of  races  that  season,  winning  a  fair  share 
of  them  and  getting  money  out  of  the  balance. 

The  best  horse  I  had  driven  up  to  this  time  was  Major 
Edsall,  a  son  of  Alexander's  Abdallah,  that  afterward 
made  a  name  for  himself  as  the  sire  of  Robert  McGregor, 


24  LIFE   WITH   THE  TEOTTERS. 

2:17|-,  and  lie  in  turn  sired  Bonnie  McGr<5^or,  record  2:16. 
As  Alexander' s  Abdallali  died  while  yet  a  yonng  horse  in 
Kentucky,  where  but  few  people  had  an  opportunity  of  see- 
ing him,  and  as  several  of  his  sons,  notably  Almont  and 
Belmont,  have  sired  some  of  our  fastest  trotters  and  also  got 
a  number  of  very  fast  x^acers,  I  think  it  Avill  be  of  interest, 
especially  to  breeders  and  horsemen,  to  give  some  account 
of  the  appearance  and  characteristics  of  Major  Edsall.  He 
Avas  a  very  handsome,  strongly  built,  light  bay  horse,  about 
fifteen  and  a  half  hands  high,  a  good  scorer,  handy  breaker, 
and  an  honest  all-round  racehorse.  He  was  trained  by  a 
man  of  the  name  of  Jim  Bertholf  in  Goshen,  'N.  Y.,  but  as 
Bertholf  was  a  good  deal  over  weight  he  concluded  to  have 
me  drive  him.  This  was  at  Binghamton,  N.  Y.  I  remem- 
ber two  of  my  opponents  in  this  race.  One  was  the  veteran 
AVilliam  H.  Doble,  father  of  Budd,  and  the  other  Tom 
Carpenter.  As  I  remember  it  Major  Edsall  got  second 
money  in  this  race,  and  I  am  j)articularly  certain  that  the 
old  heads  did  not  give  me  much  the  best  of  it.  But  I 
hustled  around,  helped  myself  to  all  I  could  get,  and  said 
nothing.  That  night  I  met  Mr.  Doble.  He  asked  me  what 
my  name  was,  and  my  age,  and  after  learning  these  points 
he  remarked  dryly:  "Well,  you  are  pretty  industrious 
with  a  horse  and  sulky,"  which  I  considered  a  great  com- 
pliment. The  following  spring  my  friend  Suydam  bought 
Lady  Salpaugh,  and  we  named  her  Constance.  She  had  at 
that  time  a  record  of  2:40,  and  Suydam  gave  for  her  $1,800, 
which  would  look  like  a  long  i^rice  now  for  a  2:40  horse. 
I  trotted  her  with  some  success  that  season,  and  she  wound 
up  with  a  record  of  2:34.  I  trained  Constance  and  my 
other  horses  that  year  at  Paterson,  N.  J.  I  had  several 
other  fair  jDerfoimers,  but  she  was  considered  the  star  of 
the  stable. 

At  Paterson  that  year,  there  was  a  race  between  two  road- 
horses  which  created  a  good  deal  of  talk,  and  an  account  of 
it  will  show  the  difference  between  the  time  made  then  and 
now.     Mr.  Post,  one  of  my  patrons,  had  a  chestnut  mare, 


LIFE    WITH   THE   TROTTERS.  25 

and  we  matched  her  against  a  horse  called  One-Eyed  Riley 
that  belonged  to  a  Mr.  Hopper,  the  race  to  be  trotted  on  the 
Fourth  of  July  over  the  Paterson  track  for  $250  a  side,  the 
\\anner  to  take  the  gate  money.  Drivers  in  those  days  tried 
to  keep  everybody  from  finding  out  how  good  a  horse  they 
had,  and  if  it  was  desired  to  give  them  a  trial  the  work  was 
done  early  in  the  morning  by  moonlight.  There  was  a  great 
deal  of  talk  and  feeling  about  the  race  with  One-Eyed  Riley. 
I  had  a  man  to  watch  the  other  j^arty  and  see  what  they 
were  doing  with  their  horse.  One  night  about  eleven 
o'clock  he  came  on  a  run  and  called  me  out  of  l)ed,  saying 
the  other  fellows  were  getting  ready  to  give  their  horse  a 
trial.  I  donned  my  clothes  and  flew  to  the  track,  and  sure 
enough  One-Eyed  Riley  and  his  driver  and  friends  were 
there  and  had  the  outside  gate  locked.  I  remember  that 
the  driver  of  Riley  was  a  German.  I  hid  in  the  grand 
stand  and  started  and  stopped  my  watch  when  the  trial  was 
given.  It  was  dark,  and  at  that  time  I  could  not  tell  how 
well  he  had  gone.  After  Riley  finished  the  mile  his  driver 
said  to  the  owner,  speaking  German  all  the  time,  that  the 
horse  went  crooked  with  him.  The  owner  said  that  was  all 
right,  he  would  go  straight  on  the  day  of  the  race.  I  could 
not  understand  what  they  Avere  saying,  but  my  agent  could 
talk  German,  and  he  kept  me  posted.  On  looking  at  my 
watch  when  my  room  was  reached,  I  found  that  Riley's 
mile  was  in  3:07,  and  then  I  knew  we  had  them  beaten.  I 
got  word  to  them  the  following  night  that  my  mare  would 
be  given  a  trial,  and  Mr.  Post  came  down.  We  were  certain 
that  the  other  side  was  watching  us,  so  I  drove  the  mare  in 
3:16.  I  think  the  medicine  took,  for  the  next  morning- 
some  of  Mr.  Hopper's  friends  came  to  Mr.  Post's  office  and 
bet  him  $250  more  that  Riley  would  beat  his  mare.  On  the 
day  of  the  race  the  elite  of  Paterson  came  down  to  witness 
the  contest.  My  mare  beat  Riley,  the  fastest  heat  being 
3:07.  I  think  that  there  was  close  to  $5,000  bet  on  that 
race.  With  that  kind  of  a  horse  now  a  man  would  have 
considerable  trouble  to  win  that  amount  of  nionev. 


26  LIFE   WITH  THE   TROTTEES. 

The  day  after  this  race  is  ahvaj^s  fresh  in  my  mind  from 
the  fact  that  it  was  tlie  first  occasion  on  which  I  met  Com- 
modore Yanderbilt,  the  father  of  William  H.  ^'"anderbilt, 
who  afterward  became  famous  as  the  OAvner  of  Maud  S., 
but  who  at  the  time  of  which  I  write  lived  on  his  father  s 
fami  on  Staten  Island.  The  Commodore  told  me  that  on 
this  farm  he  had  a  first-class  track,  and  he  thought  it  would 
be  a  good  place  for  me  to  train  horses,  as  a  great  many 
gentlemen  from  New  York  lived  down  there,  and  they 
wanted  some  one  that  could  train,  drive,  and  look  after  their 
road  and  track  horses.  The  following  year  I  moved  my 
stable  there,  and  it  was  on  Staten  Island  that  I  met  a  great 
many  men  who  have  since  become  famous  in  their  different 
walks  in  life.  Caj)tain  Jake  Yanderbilt,  the  Commodore's 
brother,  and  w^ho  is  now  more  than  eighty  years  old,  was 
my  every-day  companion.  We  had  all  sorts  of  races,  and 
CajDtain  Jake  was  one  of  the  moving  spirits  in  everything  in 
the  way  of  sport.  He  was  always  ready  to  match  his  own 
horses  and  drive  them  himself,  or  have  anyone  else  drive 
them,  and,  by  the  way,  I  have  seen  but  few  amateurs  who 
could  get  more  out  of  a  trotter  than  the  Captain.  When 
he  was  eighty  years  of  age  he  could  and  did  send  the  trotter 
Boston  down  the  road  with  the  best  drivers  in  New  York 
City,  and  never  took  a  back  seat  for  any  of  them.  I  think 
he  was  better  pleased  to  brush  with  Mace  and  the  other 
professionals  when  he  met  them  on  the  road  than  against 
anybody  else. 

Constance  showed  us  a  trial  that  year  in  2:26,  and  I 
thought  that  she  was  a  veritable  wonder,  but  like  many 
another  man  I  lived  long  enough  to  find  I  was  mistaken. 
AYitli  that  speed  in  my  stable  I  concluded  that  Staten 
Island  was  too  small  for  me.  The  FleetAvood  track  and 
Prospect  Park  were  then  in  full  bloom.  I  got  her  owner's 
check,  made  an  entry  in  a  few  races,  put  my  traps  in  order, 
and  started  with  Constance  for  the  field  of  battle.  It  did 
not  take  me  long  to  learn,  however,  that  I  was  in  too  deep 
water.     When  I  struck   out  with  a  few  drivers  like  my 


LIFE    WITH   THE   TROTTEES.  27 

friend  Mace,  Mike  Roden,  Hiram  Howe,  John  L.  Doty,  to 
say  nothing  of  the  two  Carpenter  boys,  Joclv  Bowen,  Sam 
McLanghlin,  Billy  Borst,  with  Col.  Dickey  thrown  in  as  a 
helper,  I  found  that  the  opening  for  a  boy  with  a  country 
trotter  was  very  small,  so  I  came  in  from  third  base  with 
Constance,  went  to  Prospect  Park,  and  opened  a  training 
stable.  About  this  time  I  made  the  acquaintance  of  a  man 
to  whom,  more  than  any  other  one  person,  I  owe  whatever 
success  I  may  have  had  in  my  line.  This  was  Z.  E.  Sim- 
mons, who  had  been  a  strong  supporter  of  the  trotting  turf 
from  its  infancy,  having  at  that  time  owned  a  horse  that 
has  since  become  the  most  celebrated  one  in  the  world.  I 
speak  of  that  famous  trotter,  sire  of  trotters,  and  founder 
of  a  trotting  family — George  Wilkes.  Besides  Wilkes,  Mr. 
Simmons  had  owned  Ethan  Allen,  that  was  the  greatest 
horse  of  that  day  with  a  running  mate.  He  had  also  owned 
and  sold  to  Mr.  Robert  Bonner  the  bay  mare  Pocahontas 
for  the  then  unheard-of  price  of  $40,000.  In  making  the 
acquaintance  of  Mr.  Simmons  I  fell  in  with  one  who  has 
been  a  life-long  friend.  He  had  at  that  time  a  number  of 
horses,  and  among  the  lot  was  what  proved  to  be  my  first 
great  horse,  Kansas  Chief. 


CHAPTER  II, 

Kansas  Chief,  first  a  cattle  herder,  then  ridden  by  a  gentleman,  and  next  a  2:30 
trotter — His  feet  fail  and  he  is  given  away  after  being  sold  for  $7,500 — 
Traded  to  Mr.  Simmons,  he  comes  into  my  hands — How  his  feet  were 
treated — A  great  campaign  from  the  lakes  to  the  seaboard — Don't  trot 
your  horse  when  he  is  out  of  condition — Kansas  Chief 's  last  races — How 
Dan  Mace  discovered  Rarus — A  talk  in  the  hotel  at  night — The  story  of  a 
game,  handsome,  and  honest  horse. 

Kansas  Chief  was  a  handsome  bay  gelding  with  a  white 
face  and  four  white  legs.  He  was  sixteen  hands  high,  and 
his  breeding  has  never  been  authentically  established,  but 
in  disposition  and  appearance  he  was  as  bloodlike  as  any 
race-horse  I  ever  saw. 

He  was  originally  a  saddle-horse,  and  owned  by  Mr.  B. 
F.  Akers  of  Kansas,  who  also  at  one  time  owned  Ethan 
Allen  and  Governor  Sprague.  Mr.  Akers  told  me  that  he 
bought  Kansas  Chief  as  a  saddle-horse  for  a  friend  of  his, 
getting  the  gelding  from  a  man  who  drove  cattle  up  the 
trail  between  Mexico  and  Colorado.  He  was  then  but  four 
years  old,  and  was  as  fine  a  saddler  as  Mr.  Akers  had  ever 
seen,  but  did  not  suit  the  toan  for  whom  he  was  bought, 
being  too  high-lifed.  Mr.  Akers  took  him  back,  broke 
him  to  harness,  and  began  to  drive  him  on  the  road, 
the  horse  being  by  this  time  five  years  old.  He  showed  a 
good  way  of  going,  with  some  slight  speed,  and  the  follow- 
ing season  he  was  jmt  in  training,  with  the  result  that  it  was 
soon  possible  to  drive  him  a  mile  in  2:30.  Akers  then 
brought  the  horse  to  the  Buffalo  meeting  and  started  him 
in  a  three-minute  race.  Kansas  Chief  Avas  beaten  the  two 
first  heats  by  a  horse  called  Bob.  The  Chief  was  driven  by 
a  resident  of  Pittsburgh,  but  Doble  then  got  up  behind 
him    and    he    won    in    straight    heats.       He    was    then 

(28) 


LIFE    WITH    THE   TROTTEKS.  29 

sold  by  Mr.  Akers  to  Mr.  Arthur  Gillender  of  New  York, 
who  has  always  been  prominent  on  the  turf  and  weli-lvnowii 
as  the  owner  of  Sensation  and  Hopeful,  two  horses  that  in 
their  day  were  stars  of  the  first  magnitude.  Mr.  Gillender 
j)laced  Kansas  Chief  in  the  hands  of  George  Ferguson,  one 
of  the  old-time  school  of  horse  drivers,  and  as  faithful, 
painstaking,  and  careful  a  man  as  I  ever  knew.  Mr.  Fer- 
guson was  the  first  man  to  bnild  in  New  York  City  a  model 
stable  for  the  boarding  of  gentlemen's  road  horses,  a  busi- 
ness that  is  still  carried  on  by  his  son  Frank,  a  worthy 
young  man  in  every  respect. 

The  following  season  Mr.  Ferguson  began  to  train  Kan- 
sas Chief,  but  he  seemed  to  have  lost  his  speed.  I  think 
now,  from  what  I  learned  of  the  horse  afterward,  that  the 
climate  and  the  change  in  treatment  affected  him.  He  was 
a  horse  that  had  always  been  used  to  the  oj^en  air  and  the 
grass  of  the  Western  plains,  not  getting  much  grain.  The 
training,  the  difference  in  climate,  the  clothing,  etc.,  seemed 
to  have  a  bad  effect  on  his  whole  system,  and  about  this 
time  he  developed  a  disease  of  the  feet,  and  while  some- 
times he  would  show  speed  he  was  not  successful  in  any  of 
his  races.  I  think  Jie  was  trained  a  short  time  by  Mace  and 
showed  a  mile  at  Prospect  Park  in  about  2:25,  but  his  feet 
hurt  him  so  that  Mace  had  to  stoj)  training  him.  Mr. 
Gillender,  becoming  discouraged,  sold  the  Chief  to  Dunn 
Walton,  a  man  whose  heart  is  as  big  as  his  body  is  long  ; 
and  that  is  saying  a  good  deal.  Walton  was  an  old  friend 
and  comi^anion  of  Mace,  and  he  was  also  very  friendly 
with  Mr.  Simmons,  so  much  so  that  they  used  to  trade 
horses  on  an  average  of  about  seven  times  a  week,  and  in 
one  of  these  daily  horse-swaps  Kansas  Chief  was  trans- 
ferred to  Mr.  Simmons'  stables.  He  was  brought  to  Prospect 
Park,  and  I  want  to  say  here  that  what  I  have  thus  far 
written  concerning  Kansas  Chief  is  from  hearsay,  although 
I  believe  it  to  be  strictly  correct  in  all  essential  points,  but 
from  this  time  on  whatever  is  written  about  the  horse  comes 
from  my  personal  knowledge  and  exjperience. 


30  LIFE  WITH   THE   TROTTEKS. 

1  made  a  contract  with  Simmons  to  work  for  him  on  a 
salary,  to  train  and  drive  his  horses,  he  reserving  the  right 
to  advise  and  counsel  with  me,  a  fact  which  proved  of  more 
value  to  me  than  my  salary,  as  I  had  the  advantage  of  his 
exxDerience.  Mr.  Simmons  was  in  his  day  one  of  the 
greatest  match-makers  we  ever  had.  It  was  not  an  uncom- 
mon thing  for  him  to  make  races  for  his  horses  Avhen  the 
stakes  were  as  as  high  as  $5,000  a  side,  and  it  was  he 
who  matched  Ethan  milieu  and  running  mate  against 
Dexter  in  harness.  Mr.  Simmons  never  told  me  how  much 
money  he  won  on  that  race,  but  it  must  have  been  a 
large  amount,  as  Dexter  w^as  a  great  favorite,  and  Mace 
had  given  Ethan  a  trial  and  convinced  Mr.  Simmons 
he  would  surely  win.  In  that  case  it  was  only  a 
question  of  how  much  the  other  party  was  willing  to  bet. 
Mr.  Simmons  had  a  great  deal  of  faith  in  Kansas  Chief, 
and  told  me  he  was  certain  the  horse  would  beat  2:20,  and 
in  those  days  that  amount  of  speed  meant  to  beat  every 
horse  in  the  world,  with  the  exception  of  perhaps  two  or 
three.  The  day  I  took  Kansas  Chief  he  was  shod  with  tij^s 
in  front  and  what  might  be  called  a  half  shoe,  weighing 
about  six  or  seven  ounces,  behind.  The  reason  of  this  was 
that  his  feet  had  become  very  much  contracted  and  sore, 
Mr.  Simmons  thought  that  by  shoeing  him  in  this  way  the 
pressure  would  be  brought  on  the  frog  and  force  the  foot 
out  into  its  normal  i)osition.  We  commenced  at  him  very 
guardedly,  giving  him  slow  work  and  doing  everything  we 
could  think  of  to  relieve  his  feet.  Along  in  September  he 
showed  a  mile  in  about  2:30,  and  we  felt  very  much  encour- 
aged. The  same  treatment  of  the  feet  was  continued,  and 
just  before  the  track  closed  in  the  fall  Mr.  Simmons  came  over 
and  asked  me  to  drive  the  Chief  a  mile.  I  did  so  in  2:29|^,  he 
being  still  shod  in  the  same  manner,  and  after  I  got  out  of 
the  sulky  Mr.  Simmons  asked  me  if  I  thought  I  could 
drive  him  better  than  that.  I  said  I  thought  I  could,  and 
he  api^ointed  a  day  to  come  over  and  see  me  drive  him 
aa:ain.      When  the  time  came   I  asked  Mr.  Simmons  if  I 


LIFE   WITH   THE   TROTTEES.  31 

should  drive  the  Chief  as  fast  as  I  could.  He  said  no,  to 
let  him  go  easy  the  first  half,  and  then  send  him  the 
last  part  of  the  mile.  I  started  from  the  half-mile  pole, 
and  Mr.  Simmons  stood  by  the  stables.  I  was  not 
much  of  a  judge  of  pace  at  that  time,  and  when  the 
Chief  and  myself  came  along  where  Mr.  Simmons  was  I 
asked  him  if  I  was  going  fast  enough.  He  told  me  to  drive 
along,  and  I  set  sail  with  the  horse.  When  I  finished  the 
mile  and  came  back  to  the  stable  Mr.  Simmons  asked  me 
if  I  had  driven  the  horse  as  fast  as  I  could.  I  said  no,  that 
I  could  drive  him  at  least  two  seconds  better.  ' '  If  you  are 
right  about  that  he  is  a  pretty  fair  horse,"  replied  Mr.  Sim- 
mons, "because  you  went  that  mile  in  2:23|^."  After  talking 
with  Mr.  Simmons  we  concluded  not  to  do  anything  more 
that  season  in  the  way  of  training,  but  to  bend  all  our 
energies  to  the  work  of  getting  the  Chief '  s  feet  in  proper 
condition,  his  mile  in  2:23|^  having  convinced  us  that  he 
was  a  sure  enough  trotter  if  his  feet  could  be  got  right. 

We  then  took  him  to  Mr.  Simmons'  j^rivate  stable  in 
New  York  City,  and  began  a  course  of  treatment  that  im- 
proved him  to  such  an  extent  that  he  afterward  ti'otted 
and  won  some  hard  races,  and  for  the  benefit  of  those  who 
may  have  similar  cases  to  deal  with  I  want  to  tell  what 
we  did  with  this  horse.  Mr.  Simmons  sent  for  Dr.  Bryden, 
a  man  who  made  a  sx)ecialty  of  horses'  feet.  He  consulted 
with  Mr.  Simmons  regarding  tliQ  sore  feet,  and  also  what 
would  be  good  treatment  to  relieve  them.  Dr.  Bryden  said 
to  take  the  shoes  from  the  Chief,  have  his  feet  thoroughly 
opened  with  a  knife,  and  then  poultice  them  every  night 
with  boiled  turnips  and  bran,  put  on  warm.  I  think  that 
this  \vill  grow  a  horse's  foot  out  better  than  any  treatment 
I  have  ever  seen.  A  great  many  people  say  that  it  is  un- 
natural to  poultice  a  horse' s  feet.  If  the  foot  of  a  horse  is 
sound  and  all  right  I  don' t  know  that  there  is  any  occasion 
to  poultice  it,  but  if  a  trotter  is  crij)pled  in  his  feet  you  are 
obliged  to  do  things  to  relieve  him  that  might  be  considered 
by  some  people  unnatural.     At  all  events  we  poulticed 


32  LIFE    WITH    THE  TIIOTTEES. 

Kansas  Chief  s  feet  behind  and  in  front  every  night  that 
winter,  gave  him  moderate  exercise  through  the  day,  fed 
him  light,  kept  him  in  only  fair  condition  as  to  flesh,  gave 
him  medicine  for  his  blood  and  stomach,  and  about  twice  a 
week  we  brushed  him  at  three-quarter  speed,  which  in 
those  days  was  considered  a  great  innovation,  as  it  was  con- 
trary to  all  the  rules  for  the  treatment  of  a  trotting  horse. 
I  remember  that  a  great  many  people  said  Mr.  Simmons 
was  all  wrong  in  his  treatment  of  the  horse,  but  as  I  had 
faith  in  what  my  employer  said,  and  he  was  paying  all  the 
bills,  I  was  perfectly  satisfied  to  do  just  as  he  directed. 

When  sj^ring  came  we  took  Kansas  Chief  to  Prospect 
Park,  and  one  day  we  went  out  on  the  boulevard  to  drive, 
Mr.  Simmons  being  behind  the  Chief,  while  I  had  a  good 
bay  horse  that  could  trot  some  and  run  right  well.  We 
stepped  them  down  the  road  aways,  and  soon  found  that 
Kansas  could  trot  faster  than  mine  could  run,  so  that  I 
made  up  my  mind  that  Mr.  Simmons'  treatment  of  him  had 
been  right.  We  kex3t  on  with  him  in  this  way  until  about 
the  first  of  June,  I  driving  him  under  Mr.  Simmons'  direc- 
tions. Up  to  this  time  his  fastest  mile  on  the  track  had 
been  about  2:25.  When  the  season  was  so  far  advanced 
that  all  the  stables  were  being  organized  Mr.  Simmons 
thought  it  would  be  best  to  have  the  Chief  trotted  a  few  races 
in  the  country,  thus  giving  me  a  chance  to  drive  him,  and 
also  ascertain  whether  or  not  he  was  good  enough  to  be 
entered  through  the  grand  circuit.  There  was  a  circuit  of 
meetings  through  the  West,  commencing  at  Jackson,  Mich., 
which  was  considered  the  Bufi'alo  of  the  Western  country. 
There  were  well-known  men  managing  the  Jackson  track 
in  those  days,  among  them  Don  Robinson,  D.  B.  Hibbard, 
S.  S.  Vauglm,  and  others  who  have  since  become  prominent 
in  the  same  line.  Associated  with  trotting  in  Michigan 
were  some  of  the  best-known  men  and  horses  in  the  land, 
and  the  first  of  them  that  comes  to  my  mind  is  William 
McLaughlin.  He  was  the  Dan  Mace  of  the  Western  country. 
In  personal  appearance  and  manner  McLaughlin  was  a 


LIFE    WITH   THE  TROTTERS.  33 

rough -and-ready  sort  of  man,  and  those  attributes  of  his 
character,  no  doubt,  prevented  him  from  extending  his 
sphere  of  operations;  but  when  he  was  in  his  prime  no  man 
could  outdrive  him.  He  was  a  good  deal  such  a  character 
as  were  Jim  Rockey,  ''Nosey"  Brown,  Mike  Roden,  etc. — 
a  class  of  men  who  could  get  up  behind  a  horse  they  had 
never  before  seen  and  in  almost  every  instance  drive  him  as 
well  or  better  than  the  man  who  had  put  in  months  of  time 
training  the  animal.  In  other  words,  they  could  get  out  of 
a  horse  all  there  was  in  him,  being  natural  reinsmen. 
McLaughlin  was  ready  to  take  any  chance  to  win. 

This  was  the  summer  of  1874,  and  the  only  horse  I  had 
in  charge  was  Kansas  Chief.  A  crippled  horse,  by  the  way, 
is  a  handful  for  any  man  to  train,  and  I  have  told  other 
drivers,  friends  of  mine,  that  with  one  horse  that  needed 
constant  attention  there  was  plenty  of  opportunity  for  all 
the  talent  the  trainer  has  at  his  command — in  other  words, 
so  many  different  conditions  exist  with  an  ailing  horse  that 
there  is  hardly  a  phase  of  the  business  that  will  not  come 
up  in  his  particular  case. 

I  had  as  groom  for  Kansas  Chief  a  man  of  the  name  of 
Mike  Ward,  who  had  served  his  time  under  such  well- 
known  trainers  as  Horace  Jones,  Sam  McLaughlin,  and 
Mace ;  and  what  Mike  did  not  know  about  taking  care  of  an 
ailing  horse,  or  one  of  any  kind,  was  not  in  the  books.  Mr. 
Simmons  advised  with  me  as  to  the  plan  of  campaign. 
"Don't  work  your  horse  too  hard,"  he  said.  "Go  easy, 
trot  a  few  races,  and  let  the  Chief  get  himself  into  condi- 
tion. Try  and  have  your  horse  in  good  shape  by  the  time 
the  big  circuit  opens,  and  if  he  is  then  worth  trotting  we 
will  get  some  money  with  him."  I  followed  this  advice, 
trotting  Kansas  a  couple  of  easy  races  at  Jackson  and  Sagi- 
naw, Mich  ,  and  Columbus,  Ohio,  and  then  we  went  to 
Indianapolis,  where  the  Chief  won  the  first  race  of  his 
career  with  me.  It  was  a  well-contested  one  from  start  to 
finish,  there  being  plenty  of  ]:)etting  and  the  purse  the  first 
big  one  we  had  come  to.    Everyone  was  anxious  to  get  first 


34  LIFE   WITH  THE  TROTTERS. 

money,  the  i^urse  being  $1,500.  The  celebrated  Col.  Baker, 
from  Seneca  Falls,  JS".  Y.,  was  uj)  behind  Tom  Keeler,  and 
always  out  for  the  money.  W.  H.  Crawford  was  there 
with  Annie  Collins,  Hanked  by  the  New  York  delegation, 
who  wanted  to  back  her,  and  Logan  was  backed  by  a  con- 
tingent from  the  rural  districts,  so  that  on  the  whole  there 
was  prettj^  lively  speculation.  Major  Barker,  a  well-known 
New  Yorker  in  those  days,  but  long  since  dead,  was  the 
pool-seller.  He  told  me  that  if  I  thought  my  horse  had  a 
chance  to  win  he  would  put  some  money  on  and  divide  the 
profits.  I  said  the  Chief  had  a  chance  in  that  com- 
pany, but  advised  that  not  over  a  hundred  dollars  be 
invested,  as  I  had  in  my  mind  one  thing.  I  was  trot- 
ting over  a  rough  track  against  a  lot  of  good  horses 
and  men  and  did  not  want  to  take  any  chances  of  hurting 
my  horse.  Barker  finally  said  he  would  play  a  hundred 
dollars,  which  would  win  about  a  thousand  if  our  plans  did 
not  miscarry.  Tom  Keeler  went  out  and  won  the  first  two 
heats,  but  all  this  time  Kansas  was  hardly  in  sight,  being 
laid  up  at  the  tail  of  the  hunt.  In  the  third  heat  I  trailed 
until  we  turned  into  the  home  stretch,  at  which  point  I 
swung  the  Chief  well  to  the  outside,  and  when  I  gave  him 
his  head  the  white-faced  fellow  made  short  work  of  the 
others.  When  we  went  under  the  Avire  in  the  lead  the 
fielders  who  had  been  backing  the  outfit  for  ten  dollars  in  a 
hundred  sent  up  a  howl  of  the  character  that  is  never  heard 
outside  the  State  of  Indiana.  I  think,  from  the  expression 
on  Mr.  Baker's  countenance,  that  he  was  a  little  surprised, 
and  when  we  scored  for  the  next  heat  there  was  an  evident 
disposition  on  the  part  of  my  opponents  to  see  that  I  got 
none  the  best  of  it.  AYlien  the  word  was  given  I  again 
trailed  until  the  half-mile  pole  was  reached,  at  that  point 
moving  into  second  place.  As  we  turned  into  the  stretch 
Keeler  was  in  the  lead.  Again  I  gave  the  old  horse  his 
head,  Avith  the  same  result,  an  easy  win  at  the  finish.  With 
Kansas  and  Keeler  having  two  heats  apiece  the  boys  began 
to  hedge  in  the  pool-box.     I  told  Major  Barker  to  stand 


LIFE   WITH   THE   TROTTERS.  35 

13at  witli  OTir  money,  as,  barring  accidents,  I  would  win 
sure. 

There  was  a  collision  in  the  next  heat,  however,  wliich 
came  near  upsetting  my  scheme,  as  in  going  past  the  half- 
mile  pole  Keeler  ran  into  me  and  took  several  spokes  out  of 
my  sulky.  Kansas  Chief,  naturally  a  high-lifed  horse, 
started  on  a  run,  and  acted  as  though  he  had  made  up  his 
mind  to  get  away  Avith  me.  I  took  him  to  the  extreme  out- 
side of  the  track,  and  when  he  struck  a  trot  Keeler  was  cer- 
tainly seventy-five  yards  in  the  lead,  and  going  for  all  there 
"was  in  him.  I  cut  Kansas  loose  right  there,  and  if  ever  I 
was  in  a  hurry  that  was  the  time.  With  Keeler  having 
two  heats  won,  and  seventy-five  yards  in  the  lead  at  the 
half-mile  pole  in  the  deciding  heat,  and  three  or  four  gen- 
tlemen between  him  and  me  that  I  knew  would  not  i)ull  out 
to  let  me  through,  the  situation  was  rather  gloomy.  After 
Kansas  got  well  into  his  stride,  I  leaned  over  and  touched 
him  gently  on  the  shoulders  with  the  whip.  He  showed  me 
a  rate  of  speed  then  that  I  had  often  dreamed  about,  but 
never  expected  to  have  at  the  end  of  a  pair  of  lines.  At  the 
head  of  the  stretch  I  had  them  all  beaten  but  Keeler,  and 
he  was  tiring.  Seeing  this,  I  stoptped  driving  my  horse,  let 
him  "get  his  breath,  and  about  an  eighth  of  a  mile  from  the 
wire  cut  him  loose  again.  He  soon  moved  up  to  Keeler' s 
head,  and  the  race  was  over.  Mr.  Baker  comiDluined  that 
my  horse  did  a  good  deal  of  running,  but  when  the  Judges 
replied  that  they  were  thinking  about  distancing  him  for 
foul  driving  he  abandoned  the  argument. 

The  Dexter  Park  meeting  at  Chicago  was  the  commence- 
ment of  the  grand  circuit,  and  all  the  stables  of  the  country 
were  tlirere  to  do  battle  for  the  money.  Every  man  who 
had  a  horse  entered  intended  to  turn  him  loose;  and  to  show 
what  a  good  lot  there  werfe  in  the  race  that  Kansas  won,  I 
may  say  that  the  other  starters  were  MoUie,  John  H., Harry 
Mitchell,  Phil  Sheridan,  Fox,  Dan,  Gen.  Howard,  Colum- 
bia Chief,  George  Judd,  and  Hattie.  In  tlie  pool -selling  the 
night    before   the    race  George    Judd  had   the  call.      He 


36  LIFE   AVITII    THE   TROTTERS. 

was  a  big  roan  gelding  owned  by  a  party  of  people  at  the 
stock-yards,  and  all  Chicago  turned  out  to  back  him. 
Phin  Smith  drove  J  add,  and  as  he  was  very  sweet  on  the 
horse's  chances  there  was  a  large  amount  bet  on  him.  The 
famous  ''forty-niner,"  Uncle  Jack  Batchelor,  was  there 
with  John  H.,  and  as  the  sequel  proved,  he  had  him  keyed 
up  for  this  occasion  with  the  intention  of  jDutting  all  the 
boys  under  water.  When  the  pool-selling  began  Batchelor 
came  down  with  the  bank  roll  and  took  a  stand  in  front  of 
the  auctioneer,  telling  him  he  had  come  to  bet  all  his  money, 
as  he  might  as  well  get  broke  there  as  to  go  further  and  • 
meet  the  same  fate.  Hattie,  another  local  horse,  had  some 
following,  and  Mollie  was  there  trotting  in  the  interest  of 
the  Detroit  people,  and  with  Bill  McLaughlin  in  the  sulky, 
and  Cax)t.  John  DeMass  to  navigate  the  currency  into  the 
pool-box,  she  was  not  overlooked  by  man3^  Phil  Sheridan 
had  some  backing  from  Wisconsin,  where  he  was  owned,  so 
that  on  the  whole,  the  race  was  the  big  betting  event  of 
the  year  thus  far,  and  we  knew  that  if  the  Chief  could  win 
there  would  be  a  chance  to  take  down  such  a  pile  that  we 
would  not  have  to  walk  to  Cleveland. 

As  Mr.  Z.  E.  Simmons  could  not  come  himself,  his 
brother  William  dropped  in  the  night  before  the  race  think- 
ing he  might  have  a  chance  to  buy  a  few  cheaxD  tickets  on 
the  Chief.  All  the  talent  thought  that  the  race  Kansas  Chief 
won  at  Indianapolis  was  a  scratch,  and  as  at  that  time  I 
was  but  a  boy,  they  did  not  take  much  stock  in  his  chances 
at  Chicago.  I  told  Mr.  Simmons  that  Kansas  would  win,  and 
win  sure,  and  on  the  strength  of  my  opinion  and  what  he 
knew  personally  of  the  Chief,  he  began  in  a  quiet  way  to 
lay  his  money  on  him.  When  it  came  to  the  race  we  con- 
cluded that  the  best  plan  would  be  to  do  some  w^aiting,  as 
the  held  was  very  large,  and  I  have  found  that  in  such 
cases  the  unexpected  almost  ahvays  happens — that  is  to  say, 
some  horse  that  no  one  is  looking  for  will  jumj)  out  and  go 
a  heat  fast  enough  to  cork  himself  and  all  the  rest  that  try 
to  keep  up  with  him.     In  this  instance  Batchelor  made  a 


LIFE  WITH   THE  TROTTERS.  37 

fight  for  the  first  heat  and  won  it  with  John  H.  in  2:25|, 
AA^hicli  was  a  great  clip  for  that  class  of  horses,  considering 
that  the  track  was  not  fast.  It  is  possible  that  Batchelor 
might  have  won  the  second  heat,  but  he  met  with  an  acci- 
dent as  he  turned  into  the  stretch,  being  run  into  by  How- 
ard, which  enabled  Mollie  to  win  the  heat  in  2:27,  Batchelor 
being  thrown  from  the  sulky.  In  the  meantime  the  pace 
that  John  H.  set  in  the  first  heat  had  taken  the  trot  out  of 
him,  and  he  could  not  go  much,  but  in  doing  what  he  had 
he  made  the  Chicago  contingent  very  blue,  as  George  Judd 
was  distanced  in  the  first  heat,  Hattie  and  Columbia  Chief 
being  also  behind  the  flag,  so  that  the  field  was  now  smaller, 
and  I  thought  my  chances  improved  by  this  fact.  We 
scored  up  for  the  third  heat,  and  my  idea  was  to  get  a  posi- 
tion where  there  would  be  no  chance  of  accident,  and  be 
within  striking  distance  at  the  half-mile  pole,  making  my 
driv^  from  there  to  the  wire.  Harry  Mitchell,  a  horse  that 
could  trot  some  and  run  a  good  deal,  led  to  the  half,  in  com- 
pany with  John  H.  and  Mollie.  In  passing  that  point  I 
spoke  to  Kansas,  and  he  moved  up  to  them  in  such  an  easy 
manner  that  it  satisfied  m*-  he  would  win  the  heat  sure. 
I  laid  within  two  lengths  of  the  others,  stopped  driving,  and 
trailed  around  the  upper  turn,  so  that  when  they  swung 
into  the  stretch  I  was  enabled  to  go  well  to  the  outside, 
knowing  there  was  better  footing  there,  and  I  wanted  to  be 
away  from  the  others.  When  I  gave  Kansas  his  head  he 
went  to  them  without  an  effort,  and  won  the  heat  by  a  neck 
with  something  to  spare.  The  time  was  2:28,  and  this  was 
the  first  time  he  had  beaten  2:30  in  a  race.  After  dismount- 
ing from  the  sulky  I  said  to  Mr  Simmons  that,  barring  acci- 
dents, the  race  was  over.  The  result  proved  my  opinion  to 
be  correct,  as  in  the  next  two  he:its  we  were,  never  in 
trouble,  and  I  may  add  that  in  these  heats  General  Howard 
and  Fox  were  distanced,  so  that  at  the  finish  there  were 
only  five  of  the  original  dozen  on  the  track. 

From  Chicago  we  went  to  Cleveland,  where  the   Chief 
won  a  good  race  from  a  field  which  included  a  couple  of 


38  LIFE   WITH  THE  TEOTTERS 

trotters  that  lie  liad  not  previously  met,  tliey  being  James 
Howell,  Jr.,  and  Fleety  Golddust.  In  the  second  heat  of 
this  race  Kansas  reduced  his  record  to  2:24^,  and  this,  of 
course,  made  me  a  very  happy  young  man. 

Between  his  races  the  Chief  had  but  little  work,  putting 
in  all  the  time  nursing  him,  relying  on  his  extreme  speed 
and  gameness  to  carry  him  through  on  the  day  of  the  race. 
During  the  winter  we  had  poulticed  his  feet,  as  narrated 
in  a  former  chapter,  and  after  the  campaign  began  the 
practice  was  continued,  poultices  being  applied  about  twice 
a  week,  fearing  that  if  it  were  done  more  frequently  his  feet 
might  become  too  soft.  We  walked  him  in  the  dew  as  much 
as  possible,  gave  his  feet  a  bath  in  warm  water  occasionally, 
and  used  a  lotion  of  Pond' s  Extract  and  arnica.  We  kept  a 
swab  on  his  feet,  wet  with  liniment  all  the  time,  and  it  is  one 
of  the  best  remedies  for  acute  soreness  in  a  horse' s  feet  I 
ever  tried.  In  the  Cleveland  race  Kansas  Chief  wore  shoes 
that  weighed  about  eight  ounces  in  front  and  five  ounces 
behind. 

We  left  Cleveland  thinking  there  was  a  fair  chance  to 
win  first  money  at  Buifalo,  but  when  we  arrived  there  the 
track  was  very  hard,  and  the  Chief  *was  far  from  being  over 
the  eifects  of  the  Cleveland  race.  In  working  him  out  one 
morning  he  hit  one  of  his  forward  legs  a  terrible  blow,  the 
result  being  a  big  swelling  and  plenty  of  fever.  All  these 
things  aided  in  causing  him  to  lose  the  race,  which  fell  to 
Fleety  Golddust.  We  looked  the  horse  over  that  night, 
and  it  seemed  to  our  minds  that  his  turf  career  was  over, 
for  awhile  at  least,  as  he  was  very  lame  and  sore  in  his 
forward  feet,  and  a  forward  leg  was  greatly  swollen  from  the 
effects  of  the  blow  noted  above.  His  shoes  were  taken  off, 
and  Mike  Ward  started  in  to  nurse  him.  That  night,  Mr. 
Simmons  left  forN'ew  York,  telling  me  to  use  my  own  judg- 
ment about  starting  the  horse  at  Utica.  We  went  to  Utica, 
and  the  day  after  our  arrival  had  the  Chief  s  shoes  nailed  on 
and  gave  him  a  slow  jog  of  five  miles.  He  was  so  lame  and 
sore  that  I  decided  not  to  start  him,  and  so  wrote  Mr.  Sim- 


LIFE   WITH   THE    TROTTEKS.  39 

mons.  This  was  on  Monday,  and  the  next  day  a  telegram 
came  from  Mr.  Simmons,  saying:  "Dont  draw  the  horse. 
I  will  be  there  the  day  of  the  race  and  decide  whether  to 
trot  him  or  not.''  The  Chief  was  so  sore  and  lame  that  I 
was  snre  Mr.  Simmons  would  draw  him,  so  I  had  his  shoes 
taken  off,  and  did  not  work  him  at  all— simj^ly  had  him 
walked,  his  feet  poulticed,  and  everything  done  to  relieve 
the  pain.  The  morning  of  the  race  brought  Mr.  Simmons, 
who  concluded  to  start  the  horse.  The  shoes  were  put  on, 
and,  as  usual,  there  were  plenty  of  touts  around  who  saw 
that  Kansas  was  very  lame,  and  had  not  been  worked  all  the 
week.  When  the  betting  on  the  race  began,  it  was  dollars 
to  apples  against  the  Chief.  Most  of  the  money  went  on 
Stewart  Maloney,  owned  by  Mr.  Peters,  a  theatrical  man,  of 
PhiladeliDhia;  and  Mike  Goodin,  one  of  the  old  school  of 
drivers,  who  has  now  retired  from  the  turf  and  become  the 
proprietor  of  the  Bingham  House  in  Philadeli^hia,  had  the 
mount  behind  him.  In  those  days,  a  Philadelphia  horse,  if 
he  had  any  chance  to  win,  was  certain  to  be  well  backed.  I 
told  Mr.  Simmons  that,  to  my  notion,  it  was  impossible  for 
any  horse  as  lame  as  the  Chief  was  to  win  the  race,  but  he 
said  :  "  Go  on,  and  give  them  the  best  fight  you  can.  I  am 
going  to  bet  some  money  on  Kansas,  and  if  I  lose  wont  say 
a  word." 

I  think  we  must  have  scored  twenty  times  for  the  first 
heat.  Kansas  came  up  on  every  gait  except  a  trot,  and 
when  I  would  go  to  sto})  him  at  the  end  of  a  score  it  seemed 
as  though  he  would  fall  down.  At  last  the  judges  told  me 
that  if  I  did  not  get  the  word  the  next  time  they  would  send 
the  others  off  without  me.  Mr.  Simmons  suggested  that  I 
take  the  Chief  well  down  the  stretch,  and  let  him  come  to 
the  stand  on  a  run,  and  if  the  judges  gave  the  word  try  and 
catch  him  afterward.  As  I  had  tried  every  other  plan  I 
could  think  of,  this  was  agreed  to.  When  we  reached  the 
wire,  Maloney  was  in  front  on  a  trot,  Kansas  next  to  him 
and  running.  The  judges  said,  "go,"  and  I  let  my  horse 
gallo})  for  about  fifty  yards,   he  striking  a  big  trot  when  I 


40  LIFE  WITH  THE   TROTTERS. 

caught  him,  Maloney  was  a  very  speedy  horse,  and  led  to 
the  half,  but  from  there  to  the  wire  Kansas  gave  him  a  horse 
race  all  the  way,  finally  beating  him  out  by  a  head,  in 
2:25-J,  both  horses  finishing  under  the  whip.  Some  of  the 
outsiders  were  disposed  to  complain  about  the  judges  giv- 
ing me  the  heat,  on  account  of  i  he  run  Kansas  had  made 
in  the  first  ])art  of  the  mile,  but  we  got  the  heat,  and  I  think 
were  entitled  to  it.  In  taking  the  Chief  to  the  stable  after 
this  heat,  it  seemed  to  me  that  he  would  never  come  back 
to  the  track.  Sam  McLaughlin  came  along  and  said  that  if 
that  horse  won  the  race  he  would  come  down  and  take  off 
his  hat  to  him.  I  jDut  the  Chief  s  forward  feet  in  a  tub  of 
hot  water,  and  let  him  stand  there  the  entire  twenty  minutes 
between  the  heats,  keejjing  the  water  at  the  same  tempera- 
ture all  the  time.  We  gave  his  body  and  legs  a  thorough 
rubbing,  but  when  they  called  us  for  the  second  heat  he  went 
on  the  track  as  lame  ahorse  as  I  ever  saw  in  a  race.  It  was 
the  same  old  story,  more  tedious  scoring.  Kansas  got  the 
word  on  a  break;  Maloney  led  to  the  half,  and  finished 
under  the  whip,  Kansas  gradually  drawing  up  to  him,  and 
finally  winning  by  a  neck  in  2:24f.  By  this  time  the  boys 
made  up  their  minds  that  they  were  to  be  beaten  by  a  lame 
horse.  Again  we  soaked  the  Chief  s  feet  in  hot  water,  and 
when  a  start  was  made  in  the  third  mile,  Maloney  was  again 
away  in  front,  and  led  to  the  head  of  the  home  stretch,  where 
Kansas  overhauled  him  and  won  by  a  head,  in  2:26.  I  have 
driven  a  good  many  horses,  and  some  that  I  considered  very 
game,  but  I  think  that  Kansas  Chiefs,  under  the  circum- 
stances detailed,  was  as  great  an  exhibition  of  courage  as  any 
horse  or  human  being  ever  made.  As  Mr.  Simmons  and 
myself  stood  in  front  of  the  stable  watching  the  boys  cool 
him  out,  McLaughlin  came  along  with  his  hat  in  his  hand, 
and  said  to  Mr.  Simmons:  "If  that  horse  was  a  man  he'd 
be  a  hero,"  and  I  think  all  who  have  read  the  story  of  the 
race  will  agree  with  Sam. 

We  w^ere  to  go  to  Springfield  the  following  week,  but 
the  horse  was  in  such  horrible  shajie  that  we  decided  to 


LIFE   WITH    THE   TP.OTTERS.  41 

ship  liiiii  home,  not  thmking  it  possible  that  he  could  start. 
Mr.  Simmons  left  for  New  \ork  that  night,  and  I  was  to 
ship  the  horse  the  following  day  ;  but  on  going  to  the 
stable  in  the  morning  I  was  greatly  surprised  when  Mike 
Ward  told  me  that  he  thought  Kansas  wu  s  not  as  lame  as 
he  had  been  before  his  race.  On  jogging  him  I  was  pleased 
to  find  that  Mike  was  right,  and  that  my  plans  could  be 
changed.  So  I  shipped  the  horse  to  Springfield,  and  on 
getting  there  found  the  track  soft  and  pliable,  so  that  I  gave 
the  Chief  two  slow  miles  two  days  before  his  race.  I  moved 
him  the  last  quarter  of  the  second  mile  in  34J  seconds. 
Mr.  Simmons  said  that  was  good  enough,  and  if  they  could 
beat  him  the  day  of  the  race  they  could  have  the  money. 
Of  course  we  had  seen  the  entries,  and  among  them  was 
the  stallion  Smuggler,  that  at  Buffalo,  in  a  $10,000  purse 
won  by  Thomas  Jefferson,  had  taken  the  |irst  and  second 
heats  in  2:22|^,  2:20|.  Another  to  start  against  us  was 
Fleety  Golddust,  that  had  beaten  the  Chief  a  race  at  Buf- 
falo ;  so  that  we  knew  that  at  least  two  of  our  ox)ponents 
were  good,  under  favorable  circumstances,  for  a  mile  close 
to  2:20.  But  we  figured  on  the  advantage  of  the  track, 
and  we  knew  our  horse  was  game  and  a  first-class  actor. 
Mr.  Simmons  said  :  "The" short  turns  will  puzzle  Smuggler. 
He  will  hardly  get  around  them  without  making  a  break, 
and  that  will  cost  him  his  chances  of  the  race.  The  deep 
track  will  make  Fleety  give  it  up  before  she  has  won  three 
heats." 

We  decided  to  lay  ui^  a  heat  at  Springfield,  as  usual. 
Tliere  was  a  great  deal  of  scoring,  Smuggler  being  unsteady; 
but  when  w^e  finally  got  away  Fleety  Golddust  showed  in 
front  and  was  never  headed,  winning  in  2:25.  There  was  a 
lot  of  scoring  for  the  second  heat,  but  at  last  they  were  sent 
away  with  Kansas  in  foui  th  place.  Fleety  Golddust  led  as 
usual,  and  after  turning  into  the  back  stretch  I  sent  the 
Chief  along,  because  the  back  stretch  of  the  Springfield 
track  was  then  very  long  and  the  home  stretcli  short,  so 
that  I  wanted  to  make  the  light  early  in  the  mile.     The 


42  LIFE   WITH   THE   TROTTERS. 

Chief  went  through  that  stretch  like  the  wind — so  fast, 
indeed,  that  when  he  came  alongside  of  Fleety  Golddnst  she 
made  a  break,  and  Kansas  won  easily  in  2:29.  In  this  heat, 
Smuggler,  who  had  made  a  break,  was  distanced,  thus  put- 
ting one  of  tlie  fastest  horses  in  the  race  out  of  our  way. 
The  betting  on  this  race  was  something  enormous,  all  of 
Mr.  Green's  friends  and  the  New  York  contingent  backing 
Fleety  Golddust.  Smuggler  was  owned  by  Col.  H.  S.  Rus- 
sell, of  Boston,  and  had  shown  some  great  trials,  a  mile  in 
2:20  being  one  of  them.  The  Yankees,  with  their  accus- 
tomed shrewdness,  tliought  this  w^as  as  good  a  chance  as 
they  would  get  to  add  a  few  dollars  to  their  bank  accounts, 
and  backed  Smuggler  freely.  Tom-  Carpenter  came  along 
just  before  the  race  started,  and  Mr.  Simmons  arranged  for 
him  to  quietly  j)lace  a  certain  amount  on  the  Chief.  Tom 
in  his  dry  w^ay  said  :  "  Eph,  take  my  advice;  keep  your 
money  in  your  pocket,  and  buy  oats  with  it  for  Kansas  to 
eat."  "You  x)ut  the  money  on  as  I  direct,"  responded 
Mr.  Simmons,  "and  if  I  lose  I  will  hustle  around  and  see 
that  Kansas  doesn'  t  go  hungry. " 

With  Smuggler  distanced  it  looked  as  though  the  race 
Avas  over.  The  Chief  won  the  third  heat  easily  in  2:25.  In 
the  fourth  heat,  going  around  the  first  turn,  which,  by  the 
way,  was  very  short  and  dangerous,  McLaughlin  accidentally 
ran  into  me  and  knocked  several  spokes  out  of  my  wheel. 
This  caused  a  break,  and  when  we  turned  into  the  back 
stretch  Kansas  was  the  last  horse  My  first  idea  was  to  lay 
up  the  heat,  but  when  the  leading  horses  reached  the  half- 
mile  pole  I  could  see  that  they  had  done  all  they  wanted 
to  in  the  trotting  line,  and  so  started  Kansas  for  the  heat. 
Fleety  was  three  lengths  ahead  of  me  at  the  head  of  the 
home  stretch  ;  but  half  way  to  the  wire  Kansas  was  at  her 
head,  and  from  there  it  was  easy  for  him,  the  mile  being  in 
2:27,  this  making  the  second  deciding  heat  for  big  money 
that  I  had  won  that  season,  after  meeting  with  an  accident 
and  losing  a  dozen  lengths  thereby. 

At  this  meeting  I  drove  a  race  for  Mr.  Simmons  that  I 


LIFE  WITH  THE  TROTTEES.  43 

think  pleased  him  more  and  gave  me  greater  confidence  in 
my  ability  as  a  driver  than  anything  I  had  thus  far  done. 
In  all  the  races  I  had  driven  Kansas  Chief  it  did  not  seem 
to  me  as  though  I  deserved  any  credit,  as  I  felt  that  almost 
any  man  could  have  won  with  him.  I  had  the  best  horse. 
The  race  at  Springfield  that  I  speak  of  was  one  in  which 
I  drove  Bella  against  May  Queen,  H.  C.  Hill,  Mac,  Royal 
George,  Magnolia,  James  Howell,  Jr.,  Young  Rattler, 
Harry  Spanker,  Kitty  Cook,  Hampton,  Reserve,  and  Effie 
Dean.  Bella  was  a  handsome  bay  mare  by  Rysdyk'  s  Ham- 
bletonian,  dam  by  Jupiter,  and  she  was  bred  by  James 
McMann  and  George  AVilkes,  who  was  the  editor  of  the 
Spirit  of  the  Times.  McMann,  who,  by  the  way,  is  still  in 
the  flesh  and  hale  and  hearty  at  nearly  75  years  of -age,  was 
for  many  years  the  driver  of  Flora  Temple  and  other  cele- 
brated horses  of  that  day.  After  Hiram  Woodruff  had 
given  up  Flora,  McMann  drove  her  to  a  record  of  2:19|, 
that  being  the  first  time  2:20  was  beaten  by  a  trotter. 
McMann  owTied  a  mare  by  Jui)iter  they  called  Lady 
McMann,  and  he  and  George  Wilkes  made  an  arrange- 
ment to  breed  a  colt  from  the  mare,  Wilkes  paying  for  the 
services  of  Rysdyk' s  Hambletonian,  and  McMann  furnish- 
ing the  mare.  In  the  course  of  time,  when  Bella  was  five 
or  six  years  old,  Wilkes  and  McMann  closed  their  deal  and 
the  mare  came  into  the  sole  jDossession  of  Mr.  Wilkes.  He 
sent  her  to  the  stable  of  Mr.  Simmons,  telling  that  gentle- 
man he  wished  he  would  have  her  worked  and  sell  her. 
Mr.  Simmons  drove  her  one  day,  and  came  back  and  told 
me  she  would  make  a  trotter  sure.  He  said  her  owner 
asked  for  her  $1,500,  which  he  considered  a  very  cheap 
price  for  that  'kind  of  a  mare.  I  went  out  and  drove  her 
the  next  day,  but  I  did  not  like  her,  and  so  told  Mr.  Sim- 
mons. He  still  insisted  that  I  should  buy  her,  and  offered 
to  loay  for  her  and  wait  for  his  money  until  such  time  as 
she  had  won  it  for  me.  I  declined  his  very  kind  offer,  and 
lived  long  enough  to  be  very  sorry  I  did  not  accept  it.  He 
sold  her  to  a  friend  of    his  the  following    spring,   and 


44  LIFE   WITir   THE   TROTTERS. 

Mr.  Simmons  trained  lier.  While  I  was  away  with  Kan- 
sas Chief  through  the  Western  country,  he  found  that  Befla 
had  a  good  deal  of  speed,  and  advised  his  friend  to  enter 
her  through  the  circuit,  which  he  did,  commencing  at 
Buffalo.  Mr.  Phillips  drove  her  her  Buffalo  race,  and 
as  it  was  her  first  start,  and  the  first  trip  away  from 
home,  she  was  very  nervous,  irritable,  and  acted  badly, 
being  easily  beaten,  although  showing  considerable 
speed. 

At  Utica  she  acted  better,  but  was  beaten  again.  After 
the  Utica  race,  Mr. Phillips  told  me  he  would  be  unable  to 
be  at  Sx)ringfield,  and  asked  me  to  drive  the  mare  for  him. 
Mr.  Simmons  was  satisfied  with  the  arrangement,  and  when 
we  arrived  at  Springfield,  Bella  was  placed  in  my  charge. 
I  found  in  working  her  out  for  the  race  that  she  was  what  I 
considered  a  game  mare  with  plenty  of  speed.  Nashville 
Girl,  better  known  as  Ma 3^  Queen,  was  in  Mr.  Green' s  stable, 
and  had  won  all  her  races  through  the  circuit.  She  was 
looked  upon  by  the  pool-buyers  and  talent  as  a  sure  mnner. 
In  the  betting,  Nashville  Girl  was  favorite,  $100  to  $20  over 
the  field.  Mr.  Simmons  said  to  me,  ' '  Splan,  I  don' t  know 
that  you  have  any  chance  to  win  the  race,  but  1  want  you 
to  drive  it  just  as  you  M^ould  a  race  that  you  thought  you 
were  able  to  win.  With  all  these  starters,  there  is  bound 
to  be  a  great  deal  of  scoring.  The  track  is  soft  and  deej), 
and  the  day  very  warm.  They  are  sure  to  get  tired,  and 
the  thing  for  you  to  do  is  to  protect  your  own  mare  all  you 
can  both  in  scoring  and  after  you  get  the  word,  and  don' t 
make  a  move  to  win  a  heat  until  you  see  indications  that 
the  others  are  ready  to  sit  down."  The  first  heat  Nash- 
ville Girl  won  easily  in  2:26|,  and  there  and  then  every- 
body gave  up  the  race  to  her.  In  the  second  heat  Hiclvok 
went  out  with  James  Howell,  Jr. ,  and  gave  her  a  fight.  They 
trotted  a  dead  heat  in  2:24.  This  did  not  change  the  looks 
of  the  race  very  much,  as  everyone  knew  that  Howell  would 
not  come  back  another  heat.  Effie  Dean  had  been  distanced 
in  the  first  heat,  but  the  others  were  still  in  the  fight.     In  the 


LIFE  WITH   THE  TROTTEKS.  45 

third  heat  Nashville  Girl  won  without  effort  in  2:28.  She 
out- trotted  all  the  others  from  start  to  linish. 

I  drove  my  mare  all  this  time  with  a  view  of  simply- 
saving  her  distance,  and  I  noticed  that  most  of  the  other 
drivers  were  hustling  their  horses  during  all  of  this  time  as 
though  they  were  in  a  hurry.  With  Nashville  Girl  hav- 
ing two  heats  and  being  a  2:20  trotter,  we  made  up  our 
minds  if  we  were  to  get  anything  we  would  have  to  go  out 
this  time  or  the  race  would  be  over.  Mr.  Simmons  was 
very  anxious  that  I  should  go  away  steady  and  keep  Bella 
on  a  trot  and  take  the  chances  of  beating  Nashville  Girl,  if 
I  had  any,  in  the  stretch.  Hickok  and  his  party  had  all 
piled  their  money  on  the  field  against  Nashville  Girl,  and 
when  the  Judges  said  "go''  in  this  heat  he  went  out  to  give 
her  a  fight  right  from  the  start  with  Howell.  She  out- trot- 
ted him  all  the  way,  and  I  trailed  in  behind  next  to  the 
pole,  thinking  I  would  get  an  opening  there  and  get  through. 
After  going  about  three- quarters  of  a  mile  in  that  position, 
I  saw  Green  draw  liis  wdiip  and  hit  Nashville  Girl.  She 
failed  to  respond.  I  could  see  that  Hickok  noticed  Green's 
action,  as  he  sat  down  and  commenced  to  drive  Howell  like 
one  that  was  mad.  After  about  a  hundred  yards  of  that 
kind  of  treatment  Howell  cried  enough.  I  told  Hickok  that 
if  he  wanted  to  see  Nashville  Girl  beaten,  to  iDull  out  and 
let  me  through  and  that  I  would  do  the  trick  for  liim.  He 
looked  somewhat  surprised,  but  pulled  out,  and  before 
Green  could  realize  the  fact,  Bella  had  Nashville  Girl  beaten. 
To  say  that  the  j)ublic,  the  talent,  and  myself  were  sur- 
prised doesn'  t  describe  it.  The  time  was  2:30,  but  the  crowd 
saw  that  I  had  a  better  horse  than  the  favorite.  Just  then. 

After  the  heat  was  over  and  the  horses  led  back  to  the 
cooling  ground,  I  looked  them  all  over,  and  the  onlj^  one  that 
I  saw  that  seemed  able  to  get  its  breath  at  all  was  Bella.  We 
concluded  if  they  trotted  the  race  out  that  night  the 
money  was  ours,  and  it  looked  as  though  they  would  have 
plenty  of  time  to  do  it  in.  In  the  fifth  heat,  when  they  gave  the 
word,  I  took  Bella  back,  and  Nashville  Girl  went  away  with 


46  LIFE   WITH   THE  TROTTERS. 

the  lead  again.  She  was  in  front  all  the  way  for  the  first 
seven-eighths  of  a  mile;  fi'om  there  home  they  had  a  horse 
race,  and  Bella  beat  her  in  2:31  by  a  head.  It  looked  to 
outsiders  and  myself  as  though  we  would  have  i^lenty  of 
time  to  trot  out  the  race,  but  there  was  some  delay  caused 
by  scoring  in  another  race,  and  Green  being  slow  about 
bringing  Nashville  Girl  out  on  time  when  the  horses 
were  called,  caused  our  race  to  be  postponed  until  the  fol- 
lowing day;  Nashville  Girl  having  won  two  heats  and 
made  a  dead  heat  with  James  Howell,  Jr.,  and  Bella  two 
heats.  Effie  Dean  had  been  distanced  in  the  first  heat,  Kit- 
tie  Cook  dra\vn  in  the  third,  Reserve  distanced  in  the  second, 
Harry  Spanker  and  Ham]3ton  distanced  in  the  third,  and 
Young  Rattler  drawn  at  the  end  of  the  fifth,  so  that  for  the 
finish  of  the  contest  next  day  there  were  left  to  start  of  the 
once  big  field  only  Nashville  Girl,  H.  C.  Hill,  Mack,  Royal 
George,  Magnolia,  and  Howell.  In  the  evening  about  the 
hotel  and  i^ool-room  there  was  a  great  deal  of  talk  and  excite- 
ment over  the  race.  Everybody  was  trying  to  hedge  their 
money  in  some  way.  Of  course,  it  looked  as  though  Bella's 
chance  was  lost  by  the  postponement.  Mr.  Simmons  said 
to  me:  "  Take  good  care  of  our  mare  and  try  and  bring  her 
out  in  good  shape  to-morrow.  We  have  got  a  fighting-^ 
chance,  and  we  will  take  it."  In  scoring  for  the  sixth  heat, 
Bella  was  inclined  to  be  unsteady,  and  Nashville  Girl 
appeared  to  be  able  to  out-trot  her  easily.  When  the  word 
was  given,  Nashville  Girl  went  out  mth  the  lead.  In  going 
to  the  first  turn  Bella  made  a  wild  break  and  lost  her 
chance  for  the  heat,  and  to  me  it  looked  as  though  the 
race  was  decided,  but  about  this  time  H.  C.  Hill,  a  horse 
that  had  not  before  looked  dangerous  in  the  race,  cut  loose 
after  Nashville  Girl,  caught  her  about  fifty  yards  from  the 
wire,  and  beat  her  out  a  head  in  2:28|^.  We  got  the  word 
in  the  next  heat  with  Nashville  Girl  again  in  the  lead.  Hill 
second,  and  Bella  third.  They  went  to  the  turn  in  this 
position.  Nashville  Girl  broke,  but  I  went  on  with  Bella, 
winning  the  heat.     After  the  heat,  Mr.  Green  claimed  to  the 


LIFE   WITH   THE  TROTTERS.  47 

judges  that  I  had  fouled  hhn  in  going  around  the  turn. 
They  allowed  his  claim  and  gave  the  heat  to  H.  C.  Hill,  who 
finished  second  to  me,  and  placed  me  outside,  the  time 
being  2:29^.  I  hardly  think  the  judges  intended  to  do  me 
an  injury,  but  am  still  of  the  opinion  that  they  decided 
wron'gf  ully,  as  I  was  sure  then,  and  am  yet,  that  I  did  not 
interfere  with  Mr.  Green  in  any  Avay.  There  was  a  great 
deal  of  money  on  the  race,  and  a  great  deal  of  outside 
influence  brought  to  bear,  which  I  think  may  have  affected 
the  judges'  decision  to  a  certain  extent.  Mr.  Simmons  said: 
"  Sit  still;  we  will  beat  her  yet." 

The  race  had  now  got  to  a  place  where  three  horses  had 
two  heats  apiece,  and  in  the  two  heats  trotted  on  the  second 
day,  Magnolia  and  another  had  been  distanced,  reducing 
the  field  to  five.  When  .scored  for  the  deciding  heat  I  was 
well  up  on  the  outside,  and  Mr.  Simmons  and  myself  had 
decided  that  we  had  better  trail  away  and  make  the  fight 
after  we  had  got  into  the  stretch.  When  the  judges  said 
"go,"  Hill  and  Nashville  Girl  went  out  in  front.  Bella 
went  away  at  a  good  stiff  pace,  and  I  kejot  her  well  in  hand. 
As  we  moved  down  the  back  stretch  the  others  had  a  lead 
of  about  four  lengths.  She  closed  uj)  half  that  distance  on 
them  as  they  passed  the  three  quarter-mile  ]30st.  ^Yhen  we 
turned  into  the  stretch,  Nashville  Girl  had  the  i^ole,  Hill 
on  her  wheel,  and  Bella  next.  There  was  a  hard,  smooth 
path  on  the  extreme  outside  of  the  track.  I  took  Bella  over 
there  and  set  sail  for  the  heat.  She  gained  on  them,  but 
very  slowly.  At  the  distance  stand,  it  seemed  to  me  that 
she  was  head  and  head  with  them.  Green  rallied  his  mare 
and  she  out  trotted  Bella  again  for  about  fifty  yards.  Once 
more  Bella  got  on  even  terms  with  her,  and  struggling  on, 
beat  her  to  the  wire  by  a  head  in  2: 30 J.  Tlius  ended  the 
first  real  battle  in  which  a  horse  and  sulky  were  my  weapons 
and  my  opponents  some  of  the  foremost  drivers  in  the  land. 
I,  boylike,  of  course  felt  correspondingly  delighted,  and 
received  a  great  many  compliments,  but  the  two  that  i)leased 
me  most  was  one  from  my  employer,  Mr.  Simmons,  in  which 


48  LIFE   WITH   THE  TROTTERS. 

he  told  me  that  I  had  driven  well,  and  the  other  from  the 
partner  of  all  my  joys  and  sorrows,  Mrs.    Sj^lan. 

I  turned  off  from  the  story  of  Kansas  Chiefs  races  after 
the  one  at  Springfield,  which  we  won  when  there  seemed 
to  be  no  chance  of  victory.  O  ur  next  engagement  was  at  Hart- 
ford, where  we  trotted  the  Chief,  as  it  were  out  of  his  class. 
We  started  him  there  in  the  2:24  race,  where  he  met  what 
afterward  became  two  of  the  most  celebrated  horses  of 
their  day.  I  speak  now  of  Hopeful,  the  grey  gelding  that 
made  a  record  of  2:14|  to  harness,  and  still  holds  the 
world's  record  to  wagon — 2:16|,  and  Lucille  Golddust, 
whom  Charley  Green  afterward  drove  to  a  i-ecord  of  2: 16 J, 
and  whose  first  foal,  Lucille's  Baby,  made  a  record  last 
year  of  2:20|,  and  bids  fair  to  eclipse  the  performance  of 
her  famous  dam.  We  had  heard  great  reports  of  Hopeful' s 
speed,  and  from  that  concluded  that  we  would  not  be  able 
to  beat  him,  and,  as  we.still  had  some  very  valuable  engage- 
ments with  Kansas  Chief,  Mr.  Simmons  suggested  that  if  I 
found  we  could  not  win,  to  make  the  race  as  easy  as  pos- 
sible for  Kansas  ;  which  I  did.  Hopeful  won  the  race  in 
three  straight  heats,  the  time  being  2:25,  2:23|-,  2.23|. 
Susie  got  second  money,  Kansas  Chief  third,  and  Lucille 
Golddust  fourth ;  the  other  horses  in  the  race  being  Joker, 
that  Mr.  Jay  Gould  drove  on  the  road  after  he  had  retired 
from  the  turf,  and  Ella  Wright,  that  Budd  Doble  drove. 
Joker  was  driven  by  Jimmy  Dougrey,  and  together  they 
made  a  pair  that  were  hard  'to  beat.  Dougrej-^  has  made 
himself  famous  in  more  lines  than  one.  He  has  trained 
and  driven  some  of  the  best  horses  in  this  countrj',  and 
done  it  as  well  as  any  man.  When  it  comes  to  training  a 
game  chicken,  Dougrey  can  beat  anyone,  and  his  war 
roosters  have  gained  him  fame  and  monej^  when  the  race- 
tracks were  under  the  snow.  As  a  politician  he  has  also 
shone,  having  been  canal  superintendent  on  the  Erie  under 
the  Tweed  administration,  and  it  was  through  no  dishon- 
esty or  mismanagement  of  the  canal  by  Dougrey  that 
Tweed     fell.      After    the    banishment     of    his    political 


LIFE    WITH   THE  TROTTERS.  49 

leader,  Mr,  Dougrey  returned  to  the  sulky  again,  and  as 
late  as  1888  brought  out  a  first-class  campaiguer  in  the  big 
chestnut  gelding  T.  T.  S. ,  that  trotted  two  races  a  week  all 
the  way  down  the  line  against  some  of  the  best  ones  in  the 
country,  and  seldom  failed  to  get  a  part  of  the  money. 

In  looking  back  over  the  campaign,  I  thought  I  saw 
where  I  had  made  some  serious  mistakes  with  Kansas 
Chief.  Perhaps  I  had  done  as  well  as  anyone,  taking  into 
consideration  that  it  was  the  first  time  I  had  gone  through 
the  big  circuit  with  a  horse.  One  thing  I  am  sure  of,  we 
were  all  wrong  in  starting  him  after  he  had  begun  to  lose 
his  form.  He  had  been  kept  at  an  edge,  trotted  a  great 
many  good  races,  and  beaten  some  of  the  best  horses  of  his 
year.  Perhaps  if  he  had  been  sound  he  might  have  gone 
right  on,  but  in  the  condition  of  his  feet  it  was  almost 
impossible  to  exjDect  him  to  continue  to  take  his  work  and 
go  a  race,  and  if  we  had  stopxoed  him  after  his  Boston  race 
it  would  have  been  much  bettei-.  I  sim]3ly  state  this  as  my 
opinion  after  looking  the  battles  all  over ;  and  I  believe 
that  in  order  to  make  oneself  perfect  in  any  business  in  life 
a  man  must  be  sure  to  take  account  of  all  the  mistakes  he 
makes  ;  and  as  I  am  writing  this  book  lioping  there  may  be 
in  its  pages  some  information  of  value  lo  other  people,  I 
shall  from  time  to  time  make  a  note  of  mistakes  I  think 
I  have  made  in  training,  driving,  etc. 

That  winter  we  took  Kansas  Chief  to  the  farm  of  Sam 
McLaughlin  in  Newburgh,  Orange  'County,  N.  Y.,  to  be 
cared  for.  Mike  Ward,  his  rubber,  w^ent  with  the  horse, 
and  we  commenced  to  treat  his  feet  where  we  left  off  in  the 
sjpring.  We  gave  him  medicine  to  cool  his  blood  and  tone 
uj)  his  stomach,  had  a  nice  warm  stall  with  i)lenty  of  bed- 
ding prei3ared  for  him,  and  during  the  warm  part  of  the 
day  he  was  allowed  to  run  out  in  the  paddock.  When  the 
spring  came  he  looked  and  acted  like  a  colt.  His  feet  were 
grown  out  and  very  much  improved.  His  legs  appeared 
very  clean  and  sound.  When  the  training  season  opened 
we  took  him  to  Fleetwood  Park,  and   F  tliiidv  that  was  a 


50  LIFE   WITH  THE  TROTTERS. 

mistake,  as  he  never  liked  tlie  track,  it  seeming  hard  work 
for  him  to  go  down  and  np  the  hill,  the  first  half  of  Fleet- 
wood being  very  mnch  down  grade,  and  the  last  half  an 
up-grade.  The  first  half  seemed  to  be  the  hardest  for  him. 
I  never  saw  any  horse  that  could  trot  up  the  hill  faster 
than  he  could.  The  way  I  account  for  this  was,  that  com- 
ing up  the  hill  took  the  weight  oil  from  his  forward  feet, 
and  then  he  was  naturally  a  game  and  good  finisher. 

We  trotted  a  race  at  Fleetwood  against  Hopeful  and 
Sensation,  the  Chief  winning  it  in  slow  time,  as  all  three 
horses  were  out  of  condition,  and  the  race  set  them  all 
back.  I  was  unable  to  trot  Kansas  Chief  again  until  Octo- 
ber 9,  and  then  he  went  to  Prospect  Park,  and  started 
against  what  afterward  became  one  of  the  most  famous 
horses  in  this  country.  I  mean  Rarus  ;  a  horse  that  I  have 
more  to  thank  for  than  any  other  one  I  ever  drove.  The  only 
other  starter,  besides  Kansas  Chief  and  Rarus,  was  Joker. 
Earns  won  the  race  in  three  straight  heats,  I  contenting 
myself  with  second  money.  I  made  no  effort  with  Kansas 
Chief,  as  I  knew  he  could  not  beat  Rarus,  and  I  was  not 
going  to  repeat  the  mistake  I  had  made  in  the  spring,  by 
giving  him  a  hard  race  when  he  was  out  of  condition.  The 
following  week  we  went  to  Point  Breeze  Park,  PhiladeliMa. 
There  we  struck  in  with  Rarus  and  Mace  with  Sensation. 
There  was  a  good  deal  of  betting,  with  Rarus  a  strong  favor- 
ite, as  he  had  been  winning  all  his  races.  Sensation  Avon  the 
race.  I  believe  that  Jimmie  Page,  a  very  clever  gentleman, 
who  drove  Rarus,  comiolained  that  Mace  and  myself  had  not 
given  him  any  the  best  of  it  in  some  of  the  heats.  At  any 
rate  we  got  the  money  ;  and  right  here  I  want  to  show  what 
a  bright,  smart  fellow  Dan  Mace  was  in  his  business.  In 
talking  over  the  race  that  night,  at  the  hotel,  in  our  rooms, 
alone.  Mace  said  to  me:  "  Splan,  that  horse  Rarus  can 
trot  faster  than  any  horse  I  ever  saw,  and  some  day  will 
make  a  mark."  I  said  "Dan,  how  did  you  find  that  out V 
He  told  me  that,  going  around  the  upper  turn  in  the  last 
heat,  it  was  quite  plain  that  Rarus  was  out-trotting  Sensa- 


LIFE    WITH   THE   TROTTERS.  51 

tion,  and  when  lie  cut  him  loose  on  a  run  for  lifty  or 
seventy -five  yards,  Rams  trotted  faster  than  Sensation 
could  run.  Rarus  finally  broke,  and  that  ended  the  battle. 
This  race  proved  to  me  that  Kansas  Chief  was  coming  back 
to  his  old  form,  as  he  went  the  first  two  heats  in  2:23  and 
2:24,  and,  as  Point  Breeze  was  never  a  fast  track,  I  was 
satisfied  with  him  then.  I  trotted  him  two  other  races  that 
season,  beating  Adelaide  and  Rarus,  but  neither  of  them 
need  sjoecial  mention. 

These  were  the  last  races  I  ever  drove  Kansas  Chief. 
Anything  that  can  be  said  in  favor  of  a  true  and  brave 
horse,  can  be  said,  with  truth,  about  him.  I  want  to  say 
that  I  never  think  of  the  horses  that  I  have  driven  without 
bringing  Kansas  Chief  to  my  mind.  I  have  told  of  his 
looks,  his  training,  etc.,  and  will  finish  this  chaioter  by  de- 
scribing the  way  in  which  I  bitted  and  harnessed  him,  and 
his  peculiarities  in  and  out  of  the  stable.  I  drove  him  with 
a  plain  snaffle  bit  and  an  over-check  and  check  bit,  with  his 
head  checked  well  up;  in  fact,  I  think  he  went  with  his  head 
higher  than  any  other  horse  I  ever  had.  We  put  on  him  in 
front  a  light  x)air  of  quarter  boots,  and  behind  there  were 
scalpers,  shin  and  iDassing  boots.  In  the  stable  he  was  a 
very  mild  and  docile  horse,  but  did  not  take  very  kindly  to 
strangers.  He  acted  a  good  deal  like  a  man  who  might 
have  had  dyspejjsia  all  his  life.  In  jogging  or  working 
alone  he  was  disposed  to  be  rather  sulky.  On  race  days, 
when  he  heard  the  brass  band,  and  we  commenced  to  take 
down  his  harness  and  put  on  his  boots,  he  would  begin  to 
get  very  uneasy  and  walk  around  the  stall.  He  was  always 
a  good  feeder,  and,  when  free  from  soreness,  a  verj^  easy 
horse  to  drive.  He  had  one  peculiar  habit  with  his  tongue 
that  I  never  saw  in  any  other  horse.  In  his  races  he  would 
put  his  tongue  out  about  two  inches  between  his  front  teeth, 
and  go  the  whole  mile  in  that  manner.  He  would  pinch 
his  tongue  so  hard  with  his  teeth  that,  at  the  finish  of  a 
mile,  the  end  of  it  would  look  as  black  as  a  hat.  ^AHien 
Kansas  Chief  left  my  hands,  he  was  placed  in  charge  of 


52  LIFE   WITH  THE  TROTTEES.. 

David  Mnckle,  a  gentleman  wlio  has  made  a  reputation  for 
himself  in  the  trotting  world.  Everybody  knows  him  by 
the  name  of  "Davy."  He  started  in,  a  boy,  in  the  early 
years  of  trotting,  and  served  his  time  under  such  well- 
known  peox:)le  as  Horace  Jones,  Hiram  Woodruff,  and  that 
school  of  trainers.  In  Muckle's  hands  Kansas  Chief,  in 
1876,  beat  some  of  the  greatest  horses  on  the  turf,  includ- 
ing Rams,  Bodine,  Maud,  Nettie,  and  a  host  of  others. 
This  year  ended  his  active  turf  career.  Mr.  Simmons  let  a 
friend  of  his  in  Alabama  have  him,  where  he  now  is,  and 
I  hear  he  has  still  got  all  his  old-time  fire  and  determination. 


CHAPTER  III. 

Rams,  the  first  trotter  to  beat  2:14 — How  he  was  bred  and  raised  by  a  Long 
Island  farmer — The  old  gentleman  thought  by  his  neighbors  to  be  too 
enthusiastic  about  the  colt — His  first  race  on  the  Island — How  he  came 
into  my  hands,  after  making  a  record  of  2:20^?^— A  successful  trip  through 
the  central  circuit,  winning  all  his  races  but  one — How  Jim  Crawford 
fooled  the  pool  buyers — Going  West  and  beating  the  famous  Bodine— 
Entering  Rarus  in  a  race  against  the  crack  trotters  of  the  land. 

Away  back  in  the  war  times,  or  rather,  just  after  the 
Rebellion,  there  lived  in  one  of  the  iDrettiest  ]Darts  of  Long 
Island,  and  with  a  farm  overlooking  the  Sound,  an  old 
gentleman  named  R.  B.  Conklin.  In  his  younger  days  Mr. 
Conklin  had  been  a  stage-cari:)enter,  and,  in  the  i^ui'suit  of 
his  trade,  drifted -to  New  York,  of  which  city  he  was  a  resi- 
dent for  many  years.  His  business  brought  him  in  contact 
with  the  world  a  great  deal,  and  a  natural  love  of  trotting 
was  fostered  and  encouraged  by  the  fact  that  in  the  vicinity 
of  New  York  there  were  two  of  the  leading  tracks  of  the 
day.  and  two  more,  the  Fashion  and  Union,  on  Long- 
Island. 

Being  an  economical  man,  as  well  as  an  industrious 
one,  Mr.  Conklin  had  saved  some  xiortion  of  his  earnings, 
and  by  the  time  he  had  reached  the  meridian  of  life  was 
the  j)ossessor  of  a  tine  little  farm  at  Greenj^ort,  Long  Island, 
where  he  began  in  a  modest  way  the  raising  of  a  few  colts. 
During  his  trip  to  New  York  City  Mr.  Conklin  had  noticed 
in  one  of  the  markets  there  a  big  bay  stallion,  not  a  finely- 
linished  horse  in  any  sense,  but  one  of  wonderful  power 
and  resolution,  that  fulfilled  the  menial  duty  of  hauling  a 
fish  wagon.  At  this  time  the  fame  of  Rysdyk's  Hamble- 
tonian  was  Just  being  made,  and  there  were  several  of  his 

(53)  , 


54  LIFE    WITH   THE  TROTTERS. 

sons  that  were  siring  numbers  of  fast  trotters.  Mr.  Conk- 
lin  believed,  from  the  formation  of  the  bay  stallion  that 
drew  the  fish  wagon,  that  he  was  a  descendant  of  Abdallah, 
the  sire  of  Rysdyk's  Hambletonian,  and,  with  this  fancy  in 
his  mind,  he  bought  the  horse,  then  well  advanced  in  years 
and  possessed  of  no  pleasant  temper,  and  took  him  to  the 
Long  Island  farm.  It  was  characteristic  of  Mr.  Conklin, 
than  whom  a  more  kindlj^  old  gentleman  never  lived,  to 
have  implicit  faith  in  everything  with  Avhich  he  became 
connected,  and  the  stallion  was  no  exception  to  the  rule. 
In  those  daj^s  horses,  no  matter  how  well  bred,  Avere  made 
useful,  and  so  Mr.  Conklin' s  purchase  was  jDut  to  work  on 
the  farm,  drawing  a  cart  and  assisting  generally  in  the  culti- 
vation of  the  place.  Mr.  Conklin  had,  previously  to  this 
time,  secured  a  mare  called  Nancy  Awful.  This  mare  was 
by  a  thoroughbred  horse,  called  Telegraph,  that  belonged 
to  the  Burr  family,  the  father  and  uncle  of  Carl  Burr  own- 
ing him  jointly  ;  and  right  here  I  may  say  that  no  man  has 
a  more  extended  reiDutation  as  a  handler  of  young  trottmg 
stock,  and  the  develop(;r  of  trotters,  than  this  same  Carl 
Burr,  now  grown  to  such  an  age  that  he  has  grandchildren 
at  his  knee.  To  Carl  Burr  is  due  much  of  the  credit  of 
developing  the  numerous  fast  youngsters  that  have  come 
from  the  Stony  Ford  farm  of  Mr.  Clias.  Backman.  All  the 
sons  and  daughters  of  the  famous  Clay  mare.  Green  Mount- 
ain Maid,  were  given  their  first  lessons  in  the  sulky  by 
Mr.  Burr,  and  when  it  is  remembered  that  this  mare  pro- 
duced six  that  have  beaten  2:30,  and  that  she  is  also  the 
dam  of  the  great  stallion  Electioner,  it  will  be  seen  that 
Mr.  Burr's  influence  on  the  history  of  the  trotter  is  no 
slight  one. 

But  to  return  to  Mr.  Conklin  and  the  colt.  In  due  time 
the  daughter  of  Telegraph  was  bred  to  the  stallion  called 
Conklin' s  Abdallah,  and  the  old  gentleman  predicted  then 
and  there  that  the  produce  would  be  the  greatest  trotter  that 
the  world  had  ever  seen.  It  was  really  a  sort  of  religion  with 
the  old  gentleman— this  absolute  belief  in  the  greatness  of  the 


LIFE   WITH   THE   TROTTERS.  55 

stallion  and  the  mare  owned  by  him,  and  that  their  nnion 
would  result  in  a  phenomenon  among  horses.  The  dam  of 
Earns  was  a  gray  mare,  fifteen  hands  and  three  inches  high, 
and,  with  ordinary  road  work,  could  trot  close  to  three  min- 
utes, and  had  x)lenty  of  spirit  and  determination — in  fact,  a 
little  too  much  to  be  x^leasant.  To  show  that  her  physical 
qualities  were  of  the  best,  it  may  be  said  that  she  lived  to  be 
over  thirty^  years  old.  When  the  mare' s  foal  was  finally 
dropped  it  proved  to  be  a  bay  colt, long  and  rangy  in  contour, 
with  ]3lenty  of  life  and  sx)irit.  Thus  far  the  old  man"  s  pre- 
dictions had  been  fulfilled,  for  the  animal  was  certainly  one' 
of  which  any  breeder  might  be  i)roud.  From  the  day  of  its 
birth  it  was  treated  differently  from  any  other  animal  on 
the  place.  As  soon  as  it  had  been  weaned  a  suitable  stall 
was  built,  in  a  big  barn,  for  its  accommodation,  and,  from 
that  day  forth,  nothing  was  left  undone  to  secure  its  com- 
fort. Of  course,  what  Mr.  Conklin  thought  of  the  colt  was 
known  to  his  neighbors,  for,  in  matters  of  tliis  kind,  gossip 
soon  spreads  throughout  a  village,  and  it  was  not  long- 
before  Conklin  and  his  colt  were  the  talk  of  that  end  of 
Long  Island.  The  neighbors  had  alAvays  given  Mr.  Conk- 
lin credit  for  being  a  steady-going,  hard-headed,  conserva- 
tive old  man,  with  plenty  of  sense  and  no  small  amount 
of  caution,  and  when  they  listened  to  his  rhaj)sodies  about 
the  bay  colt,  and  saw  the  j^reiDarations  he  made  for  its  com- 
fort and  convenience,  there  were  not  a  few  of  them  who 
really  thought  that  the  old  gentleman  had  become  a  little 
daft  on  the  subject. 

Of  course,  their  views  did  not  fail  to  reach  him — talk 
of  this  kind  always  comes  to  the  one  of  whom  it  is  said — 
but  it  never  altered  the  old  man  one  iota  in  his  course  with 
regard  to  the  bay  colt.  He  firmly  believed  that  he  had  the 
coming  trotter,  and  he  was  bound  that  through  no  omission 
of  his  should  any  mishap  befall  the  animal.  When  the  colt 
was  three  years  old  it  was  broken  to  harness,  and,  during 
the  following  summer,  took  x)art  in  a  little  race  on  the  Island, 
winnino;  the  contest  in   about  three  minutes.     Then  the 


56  '  LIFE   YvITII   THE  TROTTEES. 

old  man  was  more  certain  than  ever  that  he  had  the 
wonder  of  the  world,  and  redoubled  his  efforts  in  the  way 
of  care,  etc.  ;  had  a  special  stable  built  for  the  colt,  with 
an  office  adjoining,  where,  in  winter,  all  seated  around  a 
big  fire,  he  would  entertain  his  neighbors  telling  them  what 
a  great  horse  that  colt  was  going  to  be.  About  this  time 
Mr.  Conldin  gave  him  the  name  of  Rarus,  which  is  a 
Latin  adjective  meaning  rare,  it  being  his  idea  that  the  point 
of  perfection  in  horseflesh  had  been  reached  in  the  colt. 
For  the  next  two  years  Mr.  Conklin  gave  almost  his  entire 
time  to  the  care  and  education  of  this  colt.  He  bought  him- 
self a  light  wagon,  got  a  set  of  double  harness,  secured  an 
old  runner,  and,  as  he  was  a  very  heavy  man  and  did  not 
want  to  compel  the  colt  to  draw  his  weight,  he  hooked  him 
by  the  side  of  the  runner,  and  in  this  manner,  over  the  sandy 
roads  of  Long  Island,  the  future  conqueror  of  Goldsmith 
Maid,  and  champion  trotter  of  the  world,  received  his  first 
lessons  in  trotting  at  the  hands  of  his  owner,  the  stage 
carpenter. 

About  the  time  Rarus  was  six  years  old  Mr.  Conklin  had 
for  a  friend  a  man  by  the  name  of  James  Meade,  an  express- 
man from  Brooklyn.  Mr.  Meade  advised  that  Rarus  be  put 
in  the  hands  of  his  son,  who  was  something  of  a  horseman, 
and  young  Meade  drove  him  in  some  local  races,  in  which  he 
took  XDart  with  success.  The  first  regularly  recorded  event 
in  which  the  name  of  Rarus  appears  is  a  race  trotted  on 
the  21st  of  August,  1874,  at  Hornellsville,  N".  Y.,  the  purse 
being  $600.  In  this  race  the  horse  was  entered  by  James 
G.  Meade,  his  opponents  being  Knox,  Kilpatrick,  Willie 
Golddust,  Kittle  Kuler,  Ethan,  and  Bay  Jimmie,  not  one  of 
whom  was  ever  prominent  in  trotting  circles.  Knox  won 
the  first  heat  of  this  race  in  2:47,  and  then  Rarus  took  the 
next  three  heats  in  2:46,  2:45|,  2:46|.  About  this  time  James 
Page,  a  XDrominent  horseman  and  stable-keeper  of  Brook- 
lyn, who  was  always  more  or  less  interested  in  trotters, 
arranged  with  Mr.  Conklin  to  train  and  drive  Rarus. 
Whether  Page  drove  the  horse  in  his  race  at  Hornellsville 


LIFE  AVITII  THE  TROTTERS.  '         57 

I  cannot  positively  say,  but  on  October*  12,  of  the  same 
year,  Rarus  appeared  in  the  race  at  Prospect  Park,  where 
he  struck  a  much  better  class  of  horses,  his  opponents  being 
the  little  bay  mare  Adelaide  (of  whom  I  shall  have  more 
to  say  hereafter),  Falmouth  Boy,  Roadmaster,  Volunteer 
Maid,  T.  J  Stevens,  Compeer,  EfRe  Dean,  Lady  Trimble, 
and  Carrie  White.  The  race  was  a  very  hotly  contested 
one,  six  heats  being  required  to  settle  the  question.  Rarus 
won  the  first  heat  in  2:32|^;  then  Falmouth  Boy  took  the 
second  and  third  heats,  each  mile  being  trotted  in  2:34. 
Adelaide  then  went  to  the  front,  trotting  the  fourth  in 
2:30^,  and  the  fifth  in  2:32,  after  which  the  race  was  post- 
poned until  the  following  day,  when  Rarus  came  out  with 
renewed  speed,  and  captured  the  sixth  and  seventh  heats  in 
2:30  and  2:30^. 

The  horse  was  kept  at  Prospect  Park,  and  two  weeks 
later  started  in  another  race  over  same  track  against  a  field 
of  five,  the  only  one  of  the  lot  that  ever  became  promi- 
nent being  the  black  mare  May  Bird,  the  daughter  of 
George  Wilkes,  that  afterward  j^roved  herself  one  of  the 
best  all-around  performers  of  her  sjDeed  I  have  ever  seen, 
inasmuch  as  she  obtained  a  saddle  record  of  2:19f,  a  harness 
record  of  2:21,  and  drew  a  wagon  a  mile  in  2:24|.  These 
records  were  all  made  in  hotly-contested  races.  May  Bird 
was  afterward  sold  to  Mr.  Robert  Bonner,  a  man  who  has 
paid  out  nearly  half  a  million  dollars  in  cash  for  trotters, 
owning  at  one  time  Rarus,  Dexter,  and  Maud  S.  In  this 
race  at  Prospect  Park,  May  Bird  set  the  pace  rather  faster 
than  Rarus  had  been  going,  winning  the  first  heat  in  2:27.  He 
took  the  second  heat  in  2:30,  and  in  the  third  he  trotted  a 
mile  in  2:28^,  this  being  the  first  time  that  he  had  beaten  2 :30. 
May  Bird  beat  him  out  in  the  fourth  heat,  but,  with  his 
usual  resolution,  the  big  bay  horse  came  back  faster  in  the 
fifth  mile,  and  won  by  a  neck  in  2: 30 J.  These  were  two 
good  races  for  a  horse  that  had  not  been  asked  to  beat  three 
minutes  until  a  few  weeks  previous,  but  on  the  30th  of 
October  he  was  X)iilled  out  again,  and  trotted  another  race 


68  LIFE   WITH   THE   TROTTERS. 

over  the  same  traek  against  the  horses  that  he  had  beaten 
in  the  two  previous  events,  no  less  than  ten  of  them 
starting  against  him.  When  the  battle  began  May  Bird 
seemed  to  have  a  little  the  most  speed.  It  was  late  in  the 
year,  and  the  weather  was  cold.  The  daughter  of  George 
Wilkes  took  the  first  and  second  heats  in  2:30^,  2:30  ;  after 
which  Rarus  wore  her  down  and  won  the  third,  fourth,  and 
fifth  heats  in  2:32|,  2:32i,  and  2:35.  This  was  his  last  race 
in  1874,  and  he  went  into  winter  quarters  with  a  record 
of  2:28i 

In  the  spring  of  1875  he  was  again  placed  in  the  hands 
of  Mr.  James  Page.  He  was  given  a  few  ^preparatory  races, 
trotting  through  Michigan  and  Indiana,  and  on  the  22d  of 
July  came  to  Sandusky,  Ohio,  where  he  started  against 
Lady  Mack,  Carrie  L.,  and  Belle.  He  won  the  tirst  heat  of 
this  race  in  2:31,  Carrie  L.  took  the  second  in  2:32f,  Rarus 
the  third  in  2: 33 J,  Lady  Mack  the  fourth  in  2:32^,  and 
Rarus  the  liftli  in  2:32.  He  was  then  taken  to  Cleveland, 
where  the  grand  circuit  began,  and  entered  in  a  $3,500 
purse,  where  he  was  called  upon  to  beat  some  of  the  best 
horses  of  the  day  in  their  class,  the  other  starters  being 
Molly  Morris,  Carrie,  Eva,  Belle  Brasfield,  Mazo-Manie, 
Snowball,  and  Bertie.  Tliis  was  the  first  genuipe  battle 
that  I  had  ever  seen  Rarus  win.  In  all  his  other  races  he 
had  shown  moderate  speed,  with  a  good  deal  of  determina- 
tion to  hang  on.  People  who  saw  this  race  will  never 
forget  the  excitement  there  was  about  it  at  the  time.  In 
the  over -night  betting,  every  horse  was  backed  as  though 
each  owner  thought  he  had  the  purse  won.  Mazo-]\Ianie 
represented  Wisconsin,  having  been  sold  to  Mr.  E.  H. 
Brodhead,  of  Milwaukee,  a  man  whose  horses  always 
went  for  the  money.  His  friends  and  the  iDublic,  knowing 
this,  plunged  with  all  their  might.  Molly  Morris,  the  fastest 
trotter  of  her  inches  in  the  world,  belonged  at  that  time  to 
William  Armstrong,  now  a  famous  pool-seller.  William 
McLaughlin,  or  "Red  Bill,"  as  the  boys  loved  to  call  him, 
held  the  reins  over  Molly.     She  had  shown  him  trials  close 


LIFK    W  rni    TIIK   TKOTTEUS,  59 

to  2:20,  and  Armstrong  and  his  friends,  thinking  they  had 
a  good  thing,  kept  their  own  counsel  and  put  down  their 
money.  Carrie,  a  mare  that  had  proved  herself  a  hrst-class 
race  nag,  and  was  owned  by  Mr.  Myron  P.  Bush  of  Buffalo, 
had  Mace  for  a  x)ikjt,  and  all  New  York  ready  to  bet  on  her. 
From  Philadelphia  came  AVilliani  H.  Doble,  noted  for  his 
own  ability  as  a  driver,  and  also  as  being  father  of  Budd 
Doble,  who  had  Snowball  in  the  race.  Morrell  Higbie  lepre- 
sented  Illinois  with  the  gray  mare  Bertie,  that  had  speed 
enough  to  ont-trot  the  wind.  These,  with  Belle  Brastield 
and  Rarus,  made  the  field. 

Molly  Morris  won  the  first  heat,  from  start  to  finish,  in 
2:22|,  as  she  also  did  the  second,  in  2:2oi;  and  the  2)eople 
from  Michigan,  as  they  saw  their  favorite  pony  coming  to 
the  front  twice,  and  "  Red  Bill  "  at  the  head  of  the  pioces- 
sion,  commenced  to  get  ready  to  telegraph  home  the  news 
of  a  victory.  In  the  third  heat,  Molly  led  until  well  into 
the  stretch,  when  Carrie  came  alongside  and  gave  her  a 
race  from  there  to  the  stand,  both  horses  and  drivers  doino- 
their  utmost  to  win  the  heat.  After  the  finish  there  was  a 
great  deal  of  excitement,  it  being  difficult  to  know  just 
who  had  won,  but  the  judges  awarded  the  heat  to  Carrie, 
In  2:24^.  Now  came  a  change  in  the  race.  Mr.  Page,  lack- 
ing confidence  in  his  OAvn  abilit}',  asked  Mr.  John  L.  Doty 
to  drive  Rarus.  Mr.  Doty  is  a  man  not  so  well-known  to 
turfgoers  now  as  he  was  at  that  time.  Doty  came  origi- 
nally from  New  Jersey,  and  was  always  considei-ed  one  of 
the  very  best  trainers  and  drivers  of  the  old  school.  Al- 
though he  was  well  along  in  years  at  this  time,  he  was  willmg 
to  get  up  and  make  a  fight  with  the  boys,  wdiicli  he  did,  and, 
as  the  result  showed,  successfully.  I  have  always  thought 
that  the  owner  and  backers  of  Rarus  owed  to  Mr,  Doty  a 
vote  of  thanks  for  the  masterly  manner  in  which  he  handled 
him  the  balance  of  the  race.  When  the  word  was  given  in 
the  fourth  heat,  Molly  Moriis  rushed  away  with  the  lead, 
Doty  contenting  himself  witli  fourth  place.  At  the  half- 
mile  x^ost  he  cut  loose,  and  that  was  the  first  time  I  ever 


60  LIFE   VriTII   THE   TKOTTERS. 

saAv  Rams  go  at  a  rate  of  speed  to  make  ine  tliink  lie  might 
be  able  to  trot  in  2:20.  As  he  rounded  into  the  stretch,  he 
was  in  third  i^osition,  and,  from  there  to  tlie  stand,  the  race 
was  as  exciting  as  one  conkl  wish  for.  Earns  closed  inch 
by  inch  ;  he  seemed  to  grow  longer  and  bigger,  and  ]\folly 
Morris  shorter  and  smaller.  It  looked  an  uneven  battle — 
the  pony,  scarcely  fourteen  hands  high,  trotting  and  strug- 
alino-  against  a  horse  that  stood  over  sixteen  hands — and 
when  he  overtook  her  at  the  distance-stand,  and  beat  her  to 
the  wire  by  an  eyelash  only,  in  2:24|-,  there  was  great  cheer- 
ing, and  I  think  that  the  sympathy  of  a  great  many  in  the 
audience  was  with  Molly  Morris  on  account  of  her  size  and 
her  honest  attempt  to  win.  Rarns  won  the  next  heat,  but 
not  until  he  had  had  another  determined  battle,  and  went  a 
second  faster  than  in  the  fourth  mile.  In  the  deciding  heat 
they  had  all  had  enough  of  it,  and  Rarus  won  in  2:20^.  In 
this  race  he  had  gone  from  2:28  to  2:23|,  and  Doty>told  me, 
that  night,  at  the  hotel,  that  he  considered  him,  by  long- 
odds,  the  faste.st  and  best  horse  that  he  had  ever  driven. 
That  rather  sur^^rised  me,  as  I  had  seen  Doty  have  some 
very  good  ones,  and  I  felt  that  he  had  Rarus  a  little  over- 
rated on  account  of  his  victory.  .Vt  Buffalo  he  met  about 
the  same  lot  of  horses  the  following  week,  but  Molly  Morris 
turned  the  tables  on  him,  and  beat  him  in  straight  heats,  in 
2:22,  2:24|,  and  2:24|,  Carrie  getting  second  position,  and 
Rarus  third.  Doty  told  me  that  night  that  he  thought 
the  tfack  being  hard  hurt  Rarus,  as  he  did  not  seem  dis- 
p)Osed  to  extend  himself,  and  at  no  part  of  the  race,  except- 
ing the  finish  of  the  last  heat,  did  he  show  anything  like 
his  Cleveland  speed.  From  what  1  knew  of  Rarus  after- 
ward, 1  think  that  Mr.  Doty  gave  the  right  solution  of  his 
defeat.  While  the  first  heat  of  this  lace  might  have  been 
faster  than  he  could  have  gone,  he  had  shown  his  ability 
to  beat  2:24,  which  was  the  time  of  the  last  heat. 

The  following  week,  ;it  Rochester,  they  had  another  royal 
battle.  Some  of  the  heats  of  this  race  were  trotted  in  the 
mud,  which  accounts  for  the  great  variation  in  time.  Rarus 


B^. 


LIFE    WITH    THE   TROTTERS.  61 

won  the  first  heat  in  2:23^,  Molly  Morris  the  second  in  2:24^, 
and  then  tlie  rain  came  on,  making  the  traclv  slower.  This 
told  against  Molly  Morris  more  than  any  of  the  others,  and 
Rarus  beat  her  in  2:2G.  By  this  time  the  frack  was  very 
heavy  and  ancliored  them  both,  Rarns  having  a  very  long 
stride.  Eva  won  the  fourth  heat  in  2:83^,  and  then  the 
nice  Avent  over  until  the  following  day,  when,  on  a  good 
track,  Rarus  again  lowered  his  record,  trotting  a  mile 
in  2:22. 

At  Utica  about  the  same  lot  of  horses  started.  Bonner, 
a  chestnut  gelding,  driven  by  Jack  Feek,  won  the  first  heat 
in  2:22.  Feek  is  one  of  the  ornaments  of  the  profession,  both 
from  tile  standpoint  of  skill  and  in  personal  appearance. 
He  is  often  called  by  his  intimate  friends  "Handsome  Jack 
Feek,"  and  his  looks  warrant  the  compliment.  There  is  one 
thing  that  the  boys  always  know,  when  Jack  Feek  starts  a 
horse  in  a  race  for  the  money  he  is  in  the  pink  of  condition, 
and  this  was  never  better  illustrated  than  at  Cleveland  last 
sunmier,  when  he  came  out  against  seventeen  others,  all  of 
whom  could  beat  2:20,  with  the  little  mare  Lady  Whitefoot, 
and,  without  asking  their  permission  or  consulting  anybody, 
took  the  second,  third,  and  fourth  heats  of  the  race  and  the 
last  dollar  that  was  played  in  the  i^ool-boxes,  all  the  miles 
being  in  2:19  or  better.  After  this  race  the  i^rice  of  salt 
about  Syracuse  was  reduced  away  below  the  high-tariff  rate. 
In  the  Utica  race  the  second  heat  was  won  by  Bertie  in  2:27, 
and  then  Rarus  w^ent  on  and  took  the  next  three  in  2:25,  2:23, 
and  2:23.  He  was  sick  at  Springfield,  and  did  not  start  there, 
but  at  Hartford,  on  the  first  of  September,  he  was  again  in 
form,  and  made  another  material  reduction  in  his  record. 
Some  new  competitors  were  met  here,  among  them  being- 
Frank  J.  (that  my  old  friend  Jack  Bachelor,  whose  linen 
duster  and  spectacles  were  in  those  days  familiar  from  one 
end  of  the  land  to  the  other,  drove),  Parkis'  Abdallah,  CroAvn 
Prince,  and  Triumph.  Frank  J.  hadshoAvn  his  owner  a  trial 
or  two  that  made  him  think  well  of  his  chances,  and  when- 
ever Bachelor  believed  he  had  a  good  thing  he  was  willing 


(52  LIFE    WITH    TUK   TKOITEUS. 

to  play  the  limit.  To  prove  this  latter  statement,  I  will  cite 
an  instance  in  his  career  concerning  an  occasion  when  he 
was  interested  in  a  faro  game.  As  he  sat  behind  the  dealing- 
box  a  tiashil y  dressed  man  came  in  and  said:  ' '  Well,  I'ncle, 
what's  your  limits*  Bach  looked  at  him  and  replied: 
'■From  the  green  earth  to  the  blue  sky  above,  my  split- 
haired  friend  frcmi  the  city,"  and  Bach  meant  what  he  said. 
On  another  occasion  Bach  Avas  presiding  at  the  lair  of  the 
tiger  in  the  far  West,  when  in  dropped  a  miner  who  had 
just  struck  a  rich  vein  of  oi-e,  and  whose  x)ockets  were  tilled 
with  little  bags  containing  gold  dnst.  The  stranger  was  of 
the  tyj)e  of  man  that  one  reads  abont  in  novels.  He  had  a 
fierce  moustache,  his  face  wore  a  stage-villain  scowl,  and  the 
ends  of  a  con  pie  of  big  revoh-ers  i)eeped  ont  coquettishly 
from  his  hix^-pockets.  He  began  setting  the  little  bags  of 
gold  dust  down,  and  finally  centered  his  affection  on  the  jack. 
By  this  time  the  other  players  had  taken  their  bets  from 
the  lay  ont  and  were  watching  the  stranger.  He  surronnded 
the  jack  with  a  donblefrow  of  little  canvas  bags,  pnt  two  or 
three  more  on  the  corners,  and  then  stopped,  still  holding 
a  couple  of  bags  in  his  hand.  "Have  I  got  to  the  limit?" 
he  asked  Bach.  The  old  man  looked  np  over  his  spectacles, 
with  the  air  of  a,  college  professor,  and  said  in  that  high, 
squeaky  voice  that  all  the  boys  know  so  well:  "  No,  sir, 
you  have  not  reached  the  limit;  |:>nt  down  the  other  two 
bags,  and  then  junqj  on  yourself." 

So  when  Bach  started  Frank  J.  in  the  Hartford  race  he 
played  him  in  just  the  same  way.  He  went  out  and  drove  for 
his  own  money.  He  Avon  the  first  heat  in  2:23|  very 
handily.  In  the  next  heat  we  saw  one  of  the  grandest  battles 
that  had  come  off  that  year.  Fi*ank  J.  lead  all  the  way  to 
.within  fifty  yards  of  the  wire,  where  Rarus  closed  and  beat 
him  out  an  eyelash  in  2:2()|,  which  was  a  second  and  a 
qnarter  faster  than  he  had  ever  gone  before,  and  i)roved  that 
Bach  was  right  abont  his  horse,  which  he  had  deemed 
capable  of  a  mile  in  2:21.  In  the  next  heat  Frank  J.  broke, 
and  Rarns  won  easily  in  2:2.'J.     In  the  fourth  heat  they 


LIFE   Yv'ITII   THE   'JllOTTEliS.  63 

renewed  the  battle,  and  it  wji.s  anyone's  raiv  to  the  linisli, 
where  Earns  landed  a  winner  in  2: 22|,  this  being  the  fastest 
and  best  race  he  had  ever  trotted.  Two  days  later  he  per- 
formed over  the  same  track  against  Annie  Collins,  Little 
Fred,  Adelaide,  and  Bonner.  He  won  this  race  in  straight 
heats,  the  time  being  2:21^,  2:22^,  and  2:24|.  This  race  was 
conceded  to  Rarus,  and  all  the  betting  was  on  the  place. 
Crawford's  mare  had  not  shown  any  remarkable  speed  here- 
tofoi'e,  the  most  of  the  money  going  on  Bonner.  Mr.  Craw- 
ford took  advantage  of  pnblic  sentiment,  something  which 
he  has  done  on  several  occasions,  and  placed  his  money  on 
Annie  Collins  for  second  place,  and  the  result  of  the  race 
shows  the  wisdom  of  the  whole  transaction,  because  Annie 
Collins  went  the  best  race  of  her  life,  making  Rarus  trot  the 
first  mile  in  2:21  ^  to  beat  her,  and  the  second  and  third  in 
2:22^  and  2:24|.  All  of  Rarus' s  otliei'  races  through  the 
balance  of  tliis  season  were  fully  des;cribed  in  a  former 
chapter  in  connection  with  Kansas  Chief. 

At  the  end  of  this  season  Rarus  was  taken  home  to  his 
owner's  farm,  on  Long  Island,  and  placed  in  his  own  quar- 
ters, which  he  had  left  without  fame,  but  to  which  he  returned 
encircled  by  the  halo  of  glory  that  in  those  days  a  record  of 
2:2()|  would  give  to  any  horse.  The  Long  Islanders  are 
all  horsemen,  and  they  appreciated  the  fact  that  Mr.  Conk- 
lin's  prophecies,  which  they  deemed  wild  and  visionary  at 
the  time,  had  been  more  than  fullilled,  and  in  the  frosty 
days  of  November,  and  all  during  the  following  winter,  they 
would  stroll  up  to  the  barn,  sit  around  the  glowing  stove  in 
the  office,  and  listen  to  the  old  gentleman  as  he  recounted  the 
triumphs  that  the  bay  gelding  had  Avon  in  the  big  cities  of 
the  land. 

The  first  time  that  ever  I  saw  Mr.  Conklin  to  knoAv  him 
was  the  next  morning  after  Kansas  Chief  had  beaten  Rarus 
the  last  race  in  Prospect  Park,  in  the  fall  of  1875.  I  was  out 
at  the  stable,  looking  over  Kansas,  when  I  saw,  walking  to- 
ward me,  a  gentleman  who  looked  as  though,  in  the  prime 
of  life,  he  might  have  been  a  man  of  great  size  and  strength. 


64  LIFE   WITH   THE   TTIOTTERS. 

I  asked  who  lie  was,  and  one  of  the  boys  told  me  that  was 
Mr.  Conklin,  the  owner  of  Rarns.  I  stepped  out  and  said 
good  nioi'nmg  to  him,  and  we  natnrally  fell  to  chatting  about 
the  result  of  the  race  the  day  before.  He  felt  very  much 
cast  down  to  think  that  Rarus  had  been  beaten;  was  willing 
to  acknowledge  that  Kansas  was  a  good  horse,  but  not  that 
he  was  the  superior  of  Rarus.  I  told  liim  his  horse  had  too 
long  a  season,  and  was  out  of  condition,  and  at  the  same 
time  told  him  that  I  thought  Rarus  showed  speed  enough 
in  the  race  to  convince  me  that  he  was  the  fastest  horse  I 
ever  saw.  This  remark  of  mine  must  have  touched  a  sym- 
pathetic chord  in  the  old  man's  heart,  for  from  that  day 
until  he  died  no  man  had  a  warmer  friend  than  I  had  in  Mr. 
Conklin.  In  the  course  of  our  conversation  he  told  me  that, 
if  he  ever  made  a  change  of  drivers,  I  should  have  the  first 
chance  with  his  horse,  and  gave  me  a  pressing  invitation  to 
come  over  to  Long  Island,  and  visit  him  at  his  home.  This 
invitaiion  I  accepted,  later  on.  About  the  1st  of  January  I 
took  a  Long  Island  train  to  Mr.  Conklin' s  home.  1  arrived 
there  at  six  o'clock  in  the  evening,  and  was  invited  in  to  an 
old-fashioned  farm-house  supper,  and  introduced  to  Mr. 
Conklin' s  family.  After  doing  ample  justice  to  the  good 
things  at  the  table,  of  which  there  w^as  no  lack,  the  old 
gentleman  lit  his  lantern,  put  on  his  big  coat  and  boots,  and 
we  started  out  to  visit  Rarus.  I  found  the  horse  in  the  stall,  as 
pleasantly  situated  as  I  ever  saw  him  afterward.  Plenty  of 
room,  good  bedding,  lots  of  blankets,  and  in  the  room  ad- 
joining the  stall,  fitted  up  as  an  office,  was  a  nice  fire  and 
comfortable  chairs,  which  the  old  gentleman  had  provided 
for  the  reception  of  his  friends.  When  he  ordered  the 
blankets  taken  off  Rarus,  I  could  see,  by  the  light  of  the 
lantern,  that  he  had  hlled  out  and  developed  into  a  grand 
looking  horse.  He  seemed  to  have  entirely  recovered  from 
his  summer's  campaign,  and  was  very  much  improved  in 
every  way.  We  sat  down  and  talked  until  bedtime,  and  in 
the  course  of  our  conversation  I  asked  Mr.  Conklin  if  he 
would  sell  his  horse.     For  reasons  which  it  is  not  necessary 


LIFE    WITH   THE   TROTTERS.  65 

to  explain,  lie  said  to  me  that  lie  would,  at  the  same  time 
giving-  me  liis  reasons,  and  I  may  say  here  that  it  was  not 
because  he  had  lost  contidence  in  his  horse,  as  he  still 
insisted,  and,  I  am  sure,  believed,  that  he  would  eventually 
be  the  greatest  trotter  the  Avorld  ever  saw. 

After  a  pleasant  visit  of  a  day  or  two,  I  returned  to  New 
York,  and,  one  day  in  my  rambles,  met  Mr.  James  Wallace, 
who  was  at  that  time  one  of  the  most  liberal  patrons  of  the 
trotting  turf.  Mr.  Wallace  was  always  ready  to  buy  a  good 
horse,  pay  a  good  jjrice  for  him,  trot  him,  and  give  the  driver 
everything  that  was  made  with  him.  In  the  course  of  our 
conversation  I  told  Mr.  Wallace  what  I  thought  of  Rarus, 
and  also  informed  him  of  what  Mr.  Conklin  had  said  about 
selling.  He  told  me  to  find  out  just  what  would  buy  Rarus, 
and  made  an  appointment  to  see  me  again.  I  met  him  after- 
ward, and  stated  the  price,  which  I  had  found  out  from  Mr. 
Conklin.  Wallace  said  that  if  I  would,  under  a  certain 
contract,  undertake  to  train  and  drive  his  horses,  he  would 
buy  Rarus.  I  accepted  his  proposition,  and  the  first  of  the 
month  started  in  under  the  contract.  I  wrote  Mr.  Conklin, 
and  he  came  to  New  York  to  close  the  deal  witli  Mr.  Wal- 
lace. About  this  time  some  one  of  the  many  people  there- 
abouts, who  were  always  ready  to  advise  everybody  about 
their  own  business,  told  Mr.  Wallace  that  Rarus  was  an  un- 
sound horse,  and  advised  him,  under  no  consideration,  to  buy 
him.  Mr.  Wallace  sent  for  me,  and  stated  the  case.  He  told 
me  to  pay  Mr.  Conklin  liberally  for  any  trouble  that  he 
might  have  been  at,  but,  under  the  circumstances,  he  thought 
it  Avould  not  be  advisable  to  buy  Rarus.  He  sidd,  however, 
that  he  w^ould  buy  any  good  horse  that  might  ai)penr  on  the 
turf  in  the  spring.  Mr.  Conklin  did  not  seem  much  dis- 
appointed when  I  told  him  what  Mr.  Wallace  had  said, 
simply  saying:  "Very  well;  tliei'e  nuiy  come  a  day  Avhen 
he  will  want  to  buy  him  aiidcaift"* — words  that  afterward 
came  true,  as  Mr.  Wallace,  on  one  occasion  afterward,  told 
me  he  would  give  S2(). ()(>()  for  the  horse. 

In  the  spring  of  1870  Mr.  Conklin  gave  his  horse,   to 


66  LIFE    WITH   THE   TKOTTKKS. 

train  uiid  drive,  to  Mr.  .lames  1).  McMaiiii,  a  man  whom  I 
liad  seen  diive  laces  in  the  days  when  I  nsedto  play  liookey 
from  school  and  hide  my  books  nnder  a  lumber  pile.  He 
took  the  horse  to  Philadelphia,  and  trotted  him  in  the  spring- 
races  against  his  old  opponent,  Kansas  Chief,  then  in  the 
liands  of  Mr.  Dave  Muckle.  Kansas  beat  iiim  three  races 
in  succession,  Rarus  seeming  to  have  none  of  his  old-time 
speed  or  dash.  About  this  time  Mr.  McMann,  feeling  that 
lie  Avas  too  old  to  leave  home  to  camiDaign  the  horse,  sug- 
gested that  he  would  turn  the  horse  over  to  me.  I  had  given 
Mr.  Wallace  a  contract  for  my  services  foi-  the  year,  and 
could  not  take  the  horse  without  his  consent.  !So  strongly 
Avas  I  impressed  with  the  greatness  of  Rarus  that  I  was  will- 
ing to  giAe  u})  a.  good  contract,  with  a  certainty,  for  the 
chance  of  getting  him  to  train  and  dri\e.  I  Avent  and  stated 
the  case  to  Mr.  Wallace,  and  he  advised  nie,  for  uiy  own 
good,  not  to  give  up  the  contract  and  take  Rarus,  but  said 
that  if  1  insisted  he  Avould  consent  to  the  arrangement, 
Avhich  he  did.  By  this  time  Mr.  McMann  had  bi  ought 
Rarus  to  a  half-mile  track  on  Long  Island,  owned  by  the  Bar- 
clay Brothers.  About  the  1st  of  July  I  AA^ent  one  morning, 
Avitli  Mr.  Conklin  and  McMann,  to  this  place,  and,  for  the  first 
time  in  my  life,  sat  behind  Rarus.  Mr.  McMann  advised  me 
to  give  him  a  mile  in  about  2:40,  and.  tAventy  minutes  later,  to 
drive  him  another  mile  in  about  2:30,  and,  if  I  liked  him,  to 
let  him  step  along  the  last  quarter,  Avhich  I  did.  I  Avas 
much  pleased  AAdth  him.  and,  Avhile  Mr.  McMann  told 
me  he  thought  him  a  great  hoise,  I  AA^as  full  sure  that  he 
was  greater  than  even  he  thought.  Mr.  Conklin  made 
me  the  proposition  that  I  take  the  horse  and  enter  him,  and 
pay  his  expenses,  and  have  half  what  he  won.  I  Avas  per- 
fectly AAillingto  accept  the  contract,  but  the  next  thing  was, 
Avhere  could  I  get  the  money  to  pay  the  expenses  I  I 
bethought  myself  of  Mr.  Simmons,  knowing  that  if  I  found 
him  I  would  have  no  trouble  to  get  Avliat  money  I  needed;  but 
on  my  return  to  New  York,  Mr.  Simmons  was  out  of  town, 
and  no  one  seemed  to  know  Avhere  he  was.  The  entries  through. 


LIFE    WITJI    TIIK   TMOTTEUS.  67 

the  grand  circuit  closed  that  night,  and  whatever  was  done 
liad  to  be  done  before  eleven  o'clock.  My  financial  stand- 
ing at  that  time  was  such  that  there  was  not  much  chance 
for  me  to  eifect  a  loan  at  any  of  the  National  banks,  so  I 
concluded  to  look  around  for  some  X)lace  wliere  they  loaned 
money  on  less  secuiity.  I  luippened  to  meet  that  genial 
man  and  fellow-sportsman.  Col.  Jim  Crawford,  who  had 
been  a  side  partner  of  Uucle  Jack  Bachelor,  and  who  was 
always  willing  to  cake  an  even  chance  on  anything  from 
jack-straws  to  foxhunting.  I  stated  the  case  to  him,  and 
told  him  how  much  money  I  thought  it  would  take  to  pay 
the  expenses  of  entering  Rarus  through  the  circuit.  He 
took  me  to  his  hotel,  had  the  safe  opened,  diew  out  his  bank 
roll,  and  counted  out  to  me  the  amount  of  money  that  I 
wanted.  I  thereupon  entered  Rarus  through  the  grand  cir- 
cuit, commencing  at  Cleveland  and  ending  at  Hartford,  and 
the  following  week  I  shipped  him  west  from  Long  Island  io 
Cleveland.  At  this  time  he  was  rather  high  in  Hesli  and 
short  of  work,  and  I  had  but  little  time  before  his  first  race, 
but  still  I  believe  that,  had  the  track  been  good  that  day,  he 
would  have  won  that. 

The  only  other  starter  in  the  Cleveland  race  beside  May 
Queen  and  Rarus  was  (reneral  Garfield,  a  horse  that  was 
driven  by  Ed.  Brown,  better  known  as  "Nosey,"  who  was 
born  in  New  York  City,  but  who  at  that  time  had  made 
Chicago  his  home  for  a  good  nuiny  years.  He  is  dead  and 
gone  now,  but,  in  his  day  and  time,  no  man  was  a  better 
''catch''  driver  than  "Nosey,"  and,  in  this  respect,  he 
greatly  resembled  Dan  Mace,  being  able  to  Jump  up  at  a 
moment's  notice  behind  any  horse,  good  or  bad,  and  drive 
him  about  as  well  as  he  could  go.  Nosey  was  a  chaiuctei"; 
in  jDersonal  appearance  he  was  someAvhat  uncouth,  and  not 
much  given  to  the  foibles  of  the  toilet,  but  he  had  a  big 
heart,  a  ready  tongue,  and  was  about  as  witty  as  they  made 
them.  As  a  hustler  we  never  had  his  equal,  and,  more  than 
this,  he  could  tell  a  good  story  well,  even  when  the  point 
was  against  himself.     A  famous   yarn  of  his  in  Chicago 


68  LIFE    WITH   TlIK   TUOTTERS. 

to-day  is  one  that  lie  used  to  relate  with  great  gusto — how 
he,  ill  walking  alone  one  cold  winter  day  on  the  West  Side, 
espied  a  beautiful  terrier  dog  that  seemed  to  be  without  an 
owner.  F'eeling  pity  for  the  animal,  ' '  Nosey " '  reached  down, 
and  a  moment  later  the  dog  had  a  warm  resting  place 
beneath  his  overcoat.  Just  then  the  owner  of  the  animal 
appeared,  and  "Nosey,''  who  was  unaware  that  the  i^iqi 
belonged  to  anybody,  was  soon  engaged  in  a  lively  scraj) 
with  the  man.  "  I  hung  on  to  the  pup,"  he  used  to  say, 
"as  we  rolled  over  on  the  ground.  I  downed  1113'  man,  and 
got  up  and  ran  away,  with  the  log  still  under  my  overcoat. 
AVhen  I  paused  for  breath  I  looked  under  my  coat,  but  the 
pup  was  dead.  It  seems  tliat  I  had  fallen  on  him,  and  he  was 
mashed  out  as  Hat  as  a  postage  stamp.  It  was  the  only  fight 
that  I  had  won  that  winter,  and  the  prize  was  a  dead  dog 
that  the  police  would  not  let  me  put  in  the  street,  and  that 
nobody  seemed  to  want.'' 

In  the  Cleveland  race  May  Queen  was  a  long  favorite. 
The  track  was  deep,  owing  to  a  good  deal  of  rain  having 
fallen.  In  working  Rarus  out  before  the  race,  I  found  that 
he  was  about  as  helpless  a  horse  in  that  sort  of  footing  as  I 
had  ever  seen.  I  made  iq^  my  mind  that  he  had  no  chance 
to  win,  and  that  I  would  simitly  go  along  and  save  my 
distance.  May  Queen  won  easily  in  straiglit  heats,  in 
2:226i,  2:25^,  and  2:27^,  "Nosey"  Brown  and  myself 
having  a  good  race  for  second  money,  which  Rarus  won 
after  a  pretty  tight  finish.  Tliis  was  my  first  race  with 
Rarus,  but  the  track  was  so  bad  that  I  had  no  chance  to  do 
anything  in  the  race  to  give  me  any  opinion  as  to  his  ability. 
From  there  we  went  to  Buffalo  where  the  purse  was  $3,()(>0, 
where  we  again  met  May  Queen  and  General  Garfield,  Car- 
rie being  also  in  the  race.  A  few  days  before  the  Buffalo 
meeting,  Mr.  Conklin  suggested  that  I  take  Rarus  out, 
give  him  some  work,  and  see  what  I  thought  of  him.  I 
followed  his  suggestion  and  drove  liim  the  first  mile  in 
2:30;  the  second  heat  T  drove  him  in  2:22^,  and,  when  I 
was  told  how  fast  he  liad  gone,  was  very  much  surprised,  as 


LIFE   AVITII   THE   TUOTTERS,  69 

I  was  positive  I  could  have  driven  him  a  good  deal  faster. 
I  went  out  to  give  him  anotlier  mile,  and  told  Mr.  Crawford 
I  would  take  him  to  the  half-mile  post  slow,  and  let  him 
come  home  as  fast  as  he  could.  I  was  rather  anxious  my- 
self to  see  just  how  much  speed  he  had. 

I  drove  him  down  to  the  half  in  1:13,  and,  when  I  spoke 
to  him  there,  he  cut  loose  at  a  rate  of  speed  that,  to  say  the 
least,  surx)rised  me.  When  I  linished^he  nule  I  asked 
Mr.  Crawford  how  well  he  had  gone,  and  he  said  2:20.  I 
could  not  think  it  possible,  as  I  knew  I  could  have  driven 
Rarus  the  last  half  very  nuich  faster  than  I  did.  That  made 
the  last  half  of  the  mile  1:07.  Quite  a  number  of  the 
betting  men  around  saw  it,  and  they  could  not  make  up 
their  minds  what  was  in  the  wind.  They  fancied  I  wns  a 
little  too  liberal  in  showing  my  goods.  One  of  them  asked 
Crawford  why  I  had  done  it,  and  he  told  them  we  had  every 
confidence  in  the  horse,  and  wanted  to  show  the  public 
something  that  would  give  them  a  little  confidence  also. 
The  gentleman  answered,  "All  right,  Crawford,  but  I  will 
have  my  money  on  j\Iay  Queen  the  day  of  the  race,"  which 
promise  he  kept,  as  he  was  the  first  man  I  saw  at  the  pool- 
box  when  the  race  came  off.  May  Queen,  by  the  way,  was 
the  same  mare  that,  under  the  name  of  Nashville  Girl,  had 
made  a  record  of  2:20  the  previous  year,  and  had  shown 
herself  to  be  a  first-class  race  mare.  At  this  time  she  was 
owned  by  Mr.  Joseph  Harker,  of  New  York,  a  great  friend 
of  Commodore  \^anderbilt,  and  was  in  the  stable  of  Mr. 
Charlie  Green  when  he  was  in  the  heyday  of  his  glory, 
and,  under  those  circumstances,  it  was  not  strange  that  she 
was  a  favorite  at  $100  to  $20  over  the  field,  as  she  had  beaten 
the  other  horses,  and  everyone  supposed  she  would  do  it 
again.  In  talking  the  Tiiatter  over  with  Mr.  CraAvford,  we 
concluded  to  put  some  money  on  Rarus,  and  take  our 
chances,  which  we  did,  and  it  paid  us  a  handsome  jjrofif. 
In  looking  the  field  over  we  saw  no  one  in  it  that  we  thought 
could  make  a  fight  with  May  Queen,  and  started  in  the  race 
with  the  determination  to  go  at  her  right  from  the  start, 


70  LIFE    WITH    TIIK   THOTTKKS. 

if  no  one  else  did  so.  In  going  to  the  lirst  turn,  after  getting 
the  word  in  the  first  heat,  May  Queen  made  a  bi*eak,  and  I 
noticed  tliat  when  Green  went  to  catcli  her  she  tore  off  one 
of  her  forward  shoes.  She  was  a  mare  tliat  had  to  have  a 
good  deal  of  weight  to  keep  her  from  pacing,  and  I  made 
U])  my  mind  that  her  chances  for  the  heat  were  gone.  At 
this  time  I  was  in  third  position,  Mace  being  in  second 
place,  with  Carrie,  This  mare  led  to  the  quarter- pole,  where 
Rarns  passed  her,  and  going  by  the  half-mile  pole,  I  heard 
Mace  cry  out,  ''  Go  on,  Splan,  May  Queen  is  distanced."  I 
knew  Mace  was  pretty  cute,  and  I  did  not  take  his  word 
for  it,  thinking  he  might  be  trying  to  get  me  to  di-ive  my 
horse  a  hard  heat  and  pump  liim,  thereby  giving  him  a 
chance  to  come  along  with  his  mare  and  '"do"  me  for  the 
money.  In  going  througli  the  last  quarter  I  had  a  chance 
to  look  over  my  shoidder,  and  satisfied  myself  that  May 
Queen  was  really  distanced.  I  drove  along  at  abont 
the  same  rate  of  speed,  and  finished  the  heat  in  2:24|,  with 
May  Queen  behind  the  flag. 

To  say  that  there  was  a  hubbub  on  the  track  does  not  de- 
scribe the  scene.  The  pool-buyers  rushed  down  to  the  quarter 
stretch  like  a  flock  of  sheep,  and  commenced  to  give  the 
judges  a  great  deal  of  advice  as  to  how  to  decide  the  heat. 
The  judges  gave  Rarus  the  heat,  placed  Carrie  second,  and 
Garfield  third,  saying  nothing  about  May  Queen.  Mr. 
Crawford  stepped  over  to  the  pool -box,  and  straightway 
played  his  money  on  Rarus,  and  had  the  held  sold  against 
him.  A  great  many  people,  thinking  that  May  Queen  was 
not  and  would  not,  be  distanced,  played  the  field.  When 
we  cauie  out  on  the  track  for  the  second  heat.  May  Queen 
was  there,  Avitli  Doble  in  the  sulky.  I  immediately  went  to 
the  judges'  stand,  and  asked  if  they  intended  to  allow  May 
Queen  to  start.  They  said  they  did,  and  I  asked  them  on 
what  grounds  or  nnder  what  rule  they  were  acting.  These 
were  two  questions  that  they  seemed  unable  to  answer.  I 
thereupon  told  them  that  if  they  allowed  her  to  start  and  she 
beat  me  I  would  certainly  protest  their  decision,  and  I  be- 


LIFE    WITH    TIIK   TIIOTTKRS.  71 

lieve  that  by  taking  it  to  the  board  of  appeals  it  would 
be  decided  in  my  favor.  They  held  a  short  consultation 
and  then  distanced  May  Queen.  Then  the  grand  howl  of 
the  day  came  from  the  x>eople  who  had  played  tlie  field 
against  Kansas,  expecting  May  Queen  to  start  for  their 
money.  One  enterprising  indiAidual  went  so  far  as  to  get 
out  an  injunction  against  the  pool-seller  x^aying  over  his 
money  to  Rarns  in  case  he  should  win  the  race.  Mr.  J. 
(iorman  was  selling  the  pools  at  this  time,  and  before  he 
left  the  city  a  man  got  him  put  in  jail  on  a  charge  of  turning 
over  to  us  the  money  we  had  won  on  Rarus,  but  through 
the  political  influence  of  some  of  our  friends  we  got  John 
out  of  the  sweat-box  in  time  to  go  to  Rochester  with  us. 
The  second  lieat  Rarus  ^^•on  easih^  in  2:25|,  but  in  the  third 
he  threw  a  boot  and  made  a  break.  I  laid  him  u^),  and  Car- 
rie won  in  2: 24 J.  Riirus  won  the  deciding  heat  in  2: 24 J.  In 
this  race  he  was  not  called  on  in  anyplace  to  extend  himself 
or  go  at  his  highest  rate  of  speed.  With  the  exception  of 
the  place  where  he  threw  his  boot  he  acted  very  steadily, 
and  Mr.  Conklin,  Mr.  Crawford,  and  myself  felt  we  were 
on  the  high  road  to  prosi)erity. 

At  Rochester,  Garfield  was  the  only  starter  against  Rarus, 
and  the  betting  was  all  on  our  horse,  he  being  a  favorite  at 
$100  to  i^lO.  He  won  without  an  effort  in  straight  heats, 
the  time  being  2:27|,  2:22^,  2:24|.  At  Utica,  the  following 
week,  Clementine,  General  Garfield  and  Carrie  started  against 
Rarus.  This  was  Clementine's  first  race  in  the  circuit  that 
year,  and  as  Budd  Doble  had  her  in  charge,  there  was  some 
little  money  played  on  the  field  against  our  horse,  Clemen- 
tine having  gone  some  good  races  the  season  before.  Rarus 
won  without  an  effort  in  2:22^,  2:21^.  2:23,  the  second  mile 
being  the  fastest  that  I  had  driven  him  up  to  this  time  ii;  a 
race,  although  in  his  work  he  had  shown  me  9:20. 

I  had  now  driven  Rarus  four  good  races,  and  will  tell 
something  about  how  I  worked  him.  Up  to  this  time  I  had 
not  made  any  changes  in  any  way,  simply  having  him  shod, 
booted,  harnessed  and  driven  about  as  the  boy  told  me  who 


72  LiP^E  WITH  THE  tkotteiis. 

rubbed,  him  lie  had  been  heretofore.  He  had  on  him,  I 
should  think,  at  this  time,  about  tifteen  or  sixteen  ounce 
shoes.  I  noticed  that  when  he  got  strung  out  at  a  2:20 
gait  he  seemed  to  sprawl,  or  in  other  words  go  longer  than 
he  ought  to.  This  made  me  conclude  to  experiment  a  little 
with  a  lighter  shoe.  I  had  given  him  after  the  Buffalo 
race  no  work  to  speak  of,  never  driving  him  a  mile  better 
than  2:30,  and  only  brushing  him  a  little  at  the  linish  of 
his  miles.  I  would  jog  him  about  hve  or  six  miles  a  day, 
giving  him  plenty  to  eat.  I  was  satisfied  that  he  did  not 
need  any  extra  jDreparation  to  beat  the  horses  he  was  liable 
to  meet,  so  never  made  any  attempt  to  screw  him  up.  From 
Utica  Ave  went  to  Poughkeepsie.  *  Clementine  Avas  the  only 
other  starter.  I  will  here  relate  an  incident  Avhich  will 
show  what  effect  on  the  betting  a  little  information  will 
sometimes  have.  In  the  first  betting  over  night,  Rarus  Avas 
bringing  $100,  and  Clementine  from  $15  to  $20.  C.  S. 
Dempsey,  a  man  avIio  is  familiarly  knoAvn  to  the  boys  as 
"Old  l)empse,''  had  the  j)ool-selling.  When  Dempsey 
opened  his  box,  CraAvford  stepped  up  and  told  him  to  put 
$500  on  Clementine  for  him,  and  that  if  he  got  that  on 
before  he  came  back,  to  put  on  $500  more.  Crawford  and 
myself  Avent  to  the  theatre,  and  on  our  return  to  the  hotel, 
the  first  man  we  met  AA^as  a  Avell-lvnoAvn  character  named 
Paddy  Dooley.  Paddy  dragged  us  both  into  a  dark  corner 
and  AA^anted  to'knoAv  Avhat  Avas  the  matter  Avith  Ranis. 
When  I  asked  him  Avhy  he  Avanted  to  know,  he  told  me 
that  in  the  oiDening  betting  Rarus  A\'as  the  faA'orite  $100  to 
$20,  but  before  the  betting  closed  Clementine  Avas  the 
choice,  she  selling  at  $100,  Rarus  $75.  Dooley  added  tbat 
the  scene  about  the  pool-box  jDut  him  in  mind  of  Black 
Friday  in  Wall  street.  Of  course,  Mr.  CraAvford  and  my- 
self Avere  very  much  surprised  at  the  information,  and  Avent 
to  bed  leaving  Dooley  as  much  in  the  dark  as  he  was  at  the 
start.  The  next  morning  Ave  Avent  to  the  track,  and  gaA^e 
the  groom  of  Rarus  positive  orders  not  to  open  the  stall 
doors  to  anybody,  and  that  if  people  asked  about  the  con- 


LIFE    WITH   THE   TROTTERS.  73 

ditioii  oi:  the  horse,  to  refer  them  to  me,  which  I  thmk  he 
must  have  done,  as  I  was  interviewed  by  a  great  many 
people  that  morning  as  to  what  was  the  matter.  When 
the  betting  opened  at  the  track,  there  were  two  pool-sellers, 
Dempsey  and  Major  Barker.  Mr.  Crawford  picked  out  two 
friends  of  his,  and  sent  one  to  each  box,  with  orders  to  bay 
every  ticket  that  w^as  sold  on  Rarns.  The  betting  opened 
with  Clementine  the  favorite  at  $100,  liarus  bringing  about 
$80.  Mr.  Crawford's  friends  sent  the  money  in  on  Rarus 
in  such  a  shower,  however,  that  by  the  time  the  bell  tax)ped, 
Rarus  was  the  favorite  at  $100,  while  Clementine  went  begging 
at  $lo.  By  this  time  the  people,  especially  the  pool- 
buyers  Avho  had  been  squeezed  in  the  deal,  w^ere  looking- 
for  a  chance  to  conmiit  murder.  The  track  was  very  I'ougli 
and  full  of  holes,  and  immediately  after  the  horses  got  the 
word  in  the  first  heat,  Rai'us  inade  a  break,  and  I  never 
moved  for  the  heat.  Clementine  took  it  in  2:26^,  and  then 
Rarus  won  in  straight  heats,  the  time  of  the  miles  being 
2:24,  2:2o|,  2*29^;  and  Crawford's  scheme  against  the  smart 
men  about  the  pool-boxes  turned  out  well .  When  Crawford 
stepped  up  that  night  to  pay  Dempsey  the  thousand  dollars 
that  he  had  played  on  Clementine  with  him,  Dempsey 
looked  at  him.  "  Well,"  he  says,  "  you"  ve  got  me  this  time, 
but  you  will  never  do  it  again."  .Vs  a  pointer,  I  would 
advise  the  boys  not  to  try  and  repeat  Cra\\'ford's  attempt 
to  deceive  DemjDsey,  as  it  would  be  very  liable  to  fail,  for 
since  that  time  the  old  man  has  grown  as  wise  as  the  best 
of  them,  and  has  an  eye  like  an  eagle,  and  a  hand  like  the 
talons  of  a  hawk,  to  discover  and  seize  any  stray  good 
things  that  may  be  liox)ping  around  in  the  general  scuffle 
during  the  trotting  season.  ''Denipse"  is  a  character. 
When  he  started  out  on  the  trotting  turf,  it  was  as  a  buyer  of 
pools;  but  his  education  and  philosophy  soon  taught  him 
that  the  inside  of  the  box,  especially  in  the  fall,  w^as  more 
apt  to  be  fur-lined  than  the  outside,  and  it  was  not  long- 
before  he  had  a  stand  at  the  circuit  meetings,  and  a  pool- 
box  of  his  own.     He  made  money  at  the  business,  and  has 


74  LIFE    VVITII    THE   TllOTTEKS, 

a  farm  in  Pennsylvania  where  he  raises  all  kinds  of  blooded 
live  stock,  from  rabbits  to  Durham  bulls.  He  paid  me  the 
compliment  of  naming  his  best  horse  Jack  Splan. 

From  Poughkeepsie  we  went  to  Hartford,  Avhere  Rarus 
beat  Adelaide  and  Carrie  in  2:23i,  2:22^,  and  2:23^.  By 
this  time  I  had  become  thoroughly  satished  that  Rarus  could 
go  better  with  a  lighter  shoe.  I  called  in  Charles  Hney,  a 
man  in  whose  ability  as  a  shoer  of  trotting  horses  I  have  the 
greatest  faith.  Huey  originated  in  Buffalo.  At  one  of  the 
early  meetings  in  Buffalo,  Mace  had  occasion  to  call  in  a 
blacksmith,  and,  in  response  to  his  summons,  a  gieat  big, 
good-natured  man  stepped  up  and  said,  ' '  I  do  a  little  horse- 
shoeing myself.''  Mace  gave  him  the  order  he  wanted  exe- 
cuted, and  the  man  unrolled  his  leather  apron,  tied  it  around 
him,  and  started  in  at  the  work.  Mace,  Avith  his  accustomed 
acuteness,  saw  in  the  stranger  what  he  considered  a  first- 
class  mechanic,  and,  as  Huey  put  down  the  horse' s  foot, 
turned  to  him  and  said,  "  If  you  will  come  to  New  York 
with  me,  I  will  see  that  you  get  a  chance  to  make  a  for- 
tune." The  following  spring  Huey  came  to  New  York,  and 
Mace  fitted  him  up  a  shop  in  Broadway,  between  Forty- 
seventh  and  Forty-eighth  streets,  where,  with  Mace  as  a 
friend,  and  his  own  ability,  he  soon  made  himself  a  name 
second  to  that  of  no  man  in  the  business.  When  Lucy  and 
Goldsmith  Maid  were  campaigning  the  country,  Huey  was 
hired  by  Doble,  at  a  large  salary,  to  accompany  the  outfit 
and  do  the  shoeing.  At  the  time  1  speak  of,  he  had  located 
at  Hartford,  and  had  a  shop.  When  he  came  to  the  stable 
he  sat  down,  and,  in  his  good-natured  way,  commenced  to 
talk  to  me  about  the  time  I  used  to  play  hookey  from  school 
in  Buffalo  to  go  to  the  race  track  there  and  diive  horses  for 
John  L.  Stevenson.  When  I  called  his  attention  to  Rarus, 
he  looked  his  feet  over  carefully,  and  said  he  thought  he 
could  improve  them.  I  told  him  I  did  not  want  to  make 
any  very  serious  changes,  as  he  was  going  extremely  well 
then.  We  talked  over  th^^  matter  of  the  weight  of  tlie  shoes, 
etc.,  and  finally  cQpcluded  to  have  him  shod  after  certain 


LIFE    WITH   THE   TROTTERS.  75 

ideas  of  our  own,  wliicli,  on  the  following  clay,  we  carried 
out. 

Rarus  liad  ratlier  peculiar  feet,  wliicli  always  troubled 
him  more  or  less  while  I  had  him.  They  were  inclined  to 
be  very  high,  and  rather  narrow  at  the  heel.  They  also  had 
something  in  the  way  of  thrush,  or  some  such  disease,  for 
wliich  I  never  found,  perhajDS,  the  proper  name.  At  times 
of  the  year  there  would  be  a  discharge  of  a  purulent  sub- 
stance, and  he  would  seem  to  get  very  sore  in  his  frogs. 
Before  I  had  him  he  had  been  troubled  Avitli  one  or  two 
quarter  cracks.  His  feet  were  rather  inclined  to  be  dry  and 
hard,  with  occasional  fever.  We  had  him  shod,  reducing 
the  weight  of  his  shoes  to  about  thirteen  ounces,  lowered  his 
heels  some  and  shortened  his  toes  a  trifle.  At  this  time  his 
hind  feet  were  inclined  to  be  very  long,  and  low  at  his  heels. 
We  shortened  his  toes  behind,  and  thought  they  would  bear 
to  be  shod  with  six-ounce  shoes,  full  at  the  toe,  to  balance 
him  behind.  The  first  time  I  drove  him,  after  having  been 
thus  shod,  I  liked  him  better,  and  he  could  go  faster  than 
ever  I  had  seen  him.  I  also  reduced  the  weight  of  his  quar- 
ter boots,  having  them  as  light  as  possible.  At  this  time 
we  had  on  liim  nothing  but  quarter  boots  in  front,  with  light 
scalpers  and  shin  and  i^assing  boots  behind.  The  following 
week,  at  Springfield,  we  met  Carrie  and  Adelaide,  beating 
them.in  2:26,  2:26^,  and  2:25,  in  straight  heats,  without  an 
effort,  and  then  we  started  for  Fleetwood  Park,  JN'ew  York, 
to  trot  a  match  race  for  $1,000  with  Sam  Ptirdy,  to  wagon, 
our  opponent  being  a  stallion  that  Doble  had  brought  from 
California,  that  liad  obtained  a  record  through  the  grand 
circuit  of  2:20|^,  and  came  from  the  Pacific  coast  with  the 
reputation  of  being  a  great  Avagon  horse.  A  great  many 
l^eople  thought  that,  from  Rarus' s  formation,  he  would  not 
be  able  to  pull  weight,  and  believed  that  when  he  came  to 
the  hill  in  the  last  half  mile  at  Fleetwood,  it  would  anchor 
him.  Mr.  Conklin  had  often  told  me,  in  our  talks  about 
Rarus,  that  he  could  draw  weight,  and  draw  it  well,  as  in 
his  work  over  the  sandy  roads  of  Long  Island  he  had  shown 

6 


76  LIFE   WITH   THE  TROTTERS, 

liim  all  that,  long  before  the  public  ever  thought  of  Rarus. 
I  told  Mr.  Crawford  I  thought  it  would  take  more  than  one 
wagon  to  anchor  Rarus,  as  by  this  time  I  was  convinced 
that  the  horse  was  not  foaled  that  could  beat  him.  I  com- 
municated my  opinion  to  Crawford  at  the  time,  although  I 
had  never  driven  him  any  fast  miles  against  the  watch  or  in 
his  races;  but  I  had  stepped  him  out  for  short  distances  in 
his  work,  and  he  had  showed  me  so  much  speed  and  deter- 
mination and  such  good  behavior,  that  I  could  not  see 
how  they  could  possibly  beat  him.  Rarus  was  the  favorite 
in  the  overnight  betting  in  the  pool-room  at  the  corner  of 
Twenty-eighth  street  and  Broadway,  New  York,  where  a  good 
many  of  the  sports  and  drivers  of  the  present  time  took 
their  first  lessons  in  pool-buying,  and  that  was  run  at  that 
time  by  the  Johnson  brothers,  William  and  Tom;  andDavey 
Johnson,  who  has  since  become  the  most  notorious  plunger 
on  the  running  turf,  but  who  was  then  a  good-natured 
schoolboy  and  a  great  companion  of  Mace's,  was  a  boy 
about  the  place.  We  decided  not  to  place  any  more  money 
on  the  race  until  we  would  see  what  sort  of  a  day  and  track 
we  would  have,  knowing  from  our  experience  at  Cleveland 
that  we  had  no  mud  horse.  It, was  the  fall  of  the  year,  and 
the  weather  looked  as  though  we  might  have  rain.  When 
the  horses  were  called  for  the  word  I  concluded  to  go  out 
and  feel  of  Purdy,  and  see  whether  we  could  beat  him  or  not. 
I  did  so,  Purdy  winning  the  first  heat  in  2:31|.  From  what 
I  saw  I  was  satisfied  that  Rarus  would  beat  him  easily.  We 
so  bet  our  money,  and  the  result  proved  that  I  was  right,  as 
Rarus  won  in  three  heats  without  an  eifort;  time,  2:27^, 
2:31i,  2:29i 

By  this  time,  Mr.  Conklin,  Crawford,  and  myself  felt 
as  though  we  were  ready  to  tackle  the  world,  and  looked 
about  for  new  opponents  to  conquer.  It  will  be  remem- 
bered that  this  was  the  season  when  Goldsmith  Maid, 
Smuggler,  Lucille  Golddust,  and  Judge  Fullerton  trotted 
their  wonderful  series  of  races  in  the  free-for-all  class 
through  the  central  circuit,  .Smuggler  beating  the  Maid  at 


LIFE   WITH  THE  TROTTERS.  77 

Cleveland  and  at  Rochester  making  a  record  of  2:15^, 
which  was  then  by  far  the  best  for  a  stallion.  The  Maid 
did  not  start  in  the  Rochester  race,  on  account  of  reasons 
personal  to  Mr.  Doble,  and  as  Fullerton  and  Lucille  Gold- 
dust  were  out  of  the  contest  at  various  other  points,  it  so 
hapi^ened  that  the  only  horse  thac  took  part  in  all  of  the 
seven  free-for-all  races  through  the  circuit  that  year  was 
Bodiue.  This  horse  was  a  big  bay  gelding  by  Volunteer, 
that  had  been  i)urchased  a  coujDle  of  years  before  by  Mr. 
H.  C.  Goodrich,  of  Chicago,  and  that  was  driven  by  Peter 
Johnston.  Bodine  did  not  win  a  heat  in  any  of  the  races, 
being  out-classed  in  si)eed  by  Smuggler  and  the  Maid,  but 
he  had  always  given  the  others  a  good  race  and,  under  John- 
ston's  careful  management,  had  shown  himself  a  dangerous 
horse  in  any  comx)any.  The  Western  people  were  wild 
about  Bodine,  and  with  some  reason,  since  he  was  the  best 
one  in  that  j)art  of  the  country.  At  Hartford,  Mr  Good- 
rich had  a  talk  with  Mr.  Allie  Bonner,  son  of  Mr.  Robert 
Bonner,  and  in  the  course  of  the  conversation  the  perform- 
ance of  Dexter,  who  had  some  years  previously  drawn  Mr. 
Robert  Bonner  a  mile  to  wagon  in  2:21^,  a  joerformance 
that  to  this  day  has  never  been  equaled  under  the  same  con- 
ditions, came  up.  Mr.  Goodrich  wanted  to  sell  Bodine,  and 
asked  Mr.  Allie  Bonner  if  the  offer  that  his  father  had  made 
some  years  previous,  to  x)ay  a  good  price  for  a  horse  that 
would  do  what  Dexter  did,  was  still  open.  Mr.  Bonner, 
while  not  saying  that  the  offer  still  held,  reiDlied  that  his 
father  would  be  willing  to  buy  any  good  horse  that  could 
do  that,  xlnd  so  Mr.  Goodrich  shipped  his  horse  to  Chicago, 
he  having  no  further  engagements  in  the  East,  with  the 
idea  of  showing  what  he  could  do  to  wagon.  The  seven  hard 
races  that  Bodine  had  trotted  against  the  Maid  and  Smug- 
gler had  taken  a  great  deal  out  of  him,  as  it  always  does 
with  a  horse  that  is  fighting  against  superior  odds,  he  l)eing 
necessarily  strung  out  in  every  heat  he  goes.  So  when 
the  son  of  Volunteer  came  back  to  Chicago,  he  was  pretty 
thin  in  flesh,  and  not  too  exuberant  in  sxurits.      The  weight 


78  LIFE  WITH  THE  TROTTERS. 

drawn  by  Dexter  in  tlie  fast  drive  by  Mr.  Robert  Bonner 
was  421  pounds,  and  in  order  to  make  this  weight  it  was 
necessary  for  Mr.  Goodrich  to  put  a  large  bag  of  sand  on 
the  seat  of  the  skeleton  wagon  in  addition  to  the  weight  of 
the  driver,  Mr.  Johnston.  It  was  perched  on  this  piece  of 
baggage  that  Johnston,  acting  under  Mr.  Goodrich's  direc- 
tion and  not  by  reason  of  his  own  judgment  in  the  mater, 
attempted  to  drive  Bodine  in  2:21^  over  the  Central  Park 
track  in  Chicago. 

The  result  was  that  the  best  mile  the  horse  coukl  show, 
rigged  that  way,  was  2:27,  and  the  look  of  disgust  that 
came  over  Johnston's  face  at  the  finish  was  something 
worth  going  a  long  way  to  see.  After  this  trial  Mr.  Good- 
rich gave  up  the  idea  of  selling  Bodine  to  Mr.  Bonner,  and 
returned  him  to  the  turf,  entering  him  in  the  free -to-all 
race  at  Cincinnati.  In  looking  over  the  sporting  papeis  I 
saw  an  advertisement  of  this  race,  and,  having  nothing  else 
on  hand,  I  sent  on  an  entry  for  Rarus. 

On  reaching  Cincinnati  we  were  surprised  to  find  that  the 
track  was  a  half-mile  one,  and  our  chance  did  not  appear  to 
me  to  be  very  rosy,  as  I  had  been  told  that  Rarus  would  not 
perform  well  on  a  track  of  that  length.  The  other  starters 
were  Silversides,  Bodine,  Cozette,  Elsie  Good,  and  Monarch, 
Jr.  They  were  all  Western  horses,  and  considered  good  ones 
over  a  half-mile  track.  Mr.  Conklin  was  a  little  worried 
for  fear  that  something  might  happen  to  Rarus,  but  I'  told 
him  not  to  fear.  From  what  I  saw  before  the  race,  it  was 
23lain  that  it  would  be  the  West  against  the  East,  and  I,  being 
the  only  Eastern  man,  would  be  alone  in  the  battle.  I  kept 
a  little  track  of  the  other  horses  in  their  work,  and  the 
fastest  mile  that  any  of  them  went  was  one  by  Bodine  in 
2:2o|.  I  took  Rarus  out  one  clay  and  drove  him  the  first 
mile  in  2:30.  He  seemed  to  take  kindly  to  the  half-mile 
track,  and  in  repeating  him  he  stepped  the  mile  in  2:27.  A 
good  many  people  were  there  to  watch  him,  as  they  had 
heard  about  his  performances,  and  were  anxious  to  get  a 
line  on  him.     About  this  time  the  dinner  bell  at  the  club- 


LIFE   WITH   THE   TROTTERS.  79 

house  sounded,  and  everybody  made  a  bee  line  for  that 
pomt,  I  told  Barney  to  look  after  Rarus;  that  I  would  go 
to  the  club-house;  that  while  I  was  gone,  to  x)ut  the  boots 
and  harness  on  him  again,  and  that  when  I  saw  the  boys 
comfortably  seated  at  the  table  I  would  return  and  drive 
the  horse  a  mile  for  ourselves.  When  I  came  back  Barney 
had  Rarus  ready,  and  I  met  Jim  Murphy,  a  man  whom  I 
had  known  for  some  time,  and  who  is  famous  as  a 
trainer  of  some  of  the  most  successful  racehorses  on  the 
running  turf.  I  told  Murphy  my  plans,  and  asked  him 
to  time  Rarus  for  me  from  a  big  tree  at  the  head  of 
the  stretch.  I  sent  him  a  mile  from  that  point,  and  when  I 
came  back,  and  he  showed  me  his  watch  with  the  hands  at 
2:21^  I  made  up  my  miiid  that  the  first  mcmey  in  that 
purse  would  go  East.  When  the  day  of  the  race  arrived 
there  was  plenty  of  betting,  Bodine  being  the  favorite. 
Murphy  had  a  commission  from  our  party  to  jout  on  the 
money,  and  it  is  not  necessary  to  tell  those  who  know 
Murphy  that  he  did  this,  put  on  his  own  mone}",  and  Avas 
willing  to  get  on  himself.  Rarus  won  the  race  in  the  easiest 
possible  manner,  not  losing  a  heat,  the  miles  being  done  in 
5:25J,  2:24,  2:25^.  Silversides  got  second  place,  Bodine 
being  obliged  to  content  himself  with  third  money,  thereby 
carrying  down  in  the  pool-box  all  who  backed  him. 

About  this  time  the  Fleetwood  Park  people  in  New  York 
offered  a  purse  free  to  all  trotters  with  the  exception  of 
Goldsmith  Maid.  I  had  been  driving  the  chestnut  gelding, 
Judge  Fullerton,  in  the  free-for-all  class  against  Goldsmith 
Maid,  and  at  this  time  had  him  in  my  stable.  I  said  to 
Mr.  Humphrey,  his  owner,  that  if  he  had  no  objection  I 
would  like  to  trot  Rarus  in  the  Fleetwood  Park  j)urse,  and 
after  talking  the  matter  over  he  concluded  that  he  would 
give  Fullerton  to  John  Murphy  to  drive  in  this  race.  A 
great  many  people  thought  the  purse  would  not  fill,  but, 
when  the  entries  were  opened,  we  found  that  a  lot  of  other 
drivers  liad  figured  just  as  I  did,  and  thought  they  would 
get  some  easy  money  by  dropi^ing  into  New  York.     The 


80  LIFE   WITH   THE  TROTTERS. 

result  of  this  was  that,  beside  Rarus,  there  was  also  entered 
Great  Eastern,  who  had  been  a  winner  in  his  class  through  the 
circuit,  making  a  record  of  2:18.  This  horse  was  the  largest 
trotter  I  ever  saAv,  standing  over  seventeen  hands  high,  and 
had  been  very  successful  that  year  under  the  management 
of  Jack  Feek.  Judge  Fullerton  was  also  in,  as  I  have 
stated,  and  appeared  for  the  first  time  with  John  Murphy 
behind  him.  Then  came  Lucille  Golddust,  who  had  always 
proved  herself  a  first-class  performer  in  any  com^^any.  She 
had  been  trotting  third  to  Goldsmith  Maid  and  Smuggler 
through  the  circuit,  beating  2:20  two  or  three  seconds  every 
heat.  The  great  stallion  Smuggler,  with  his  record  of 
2:15J,  made  only  a  few  weeks  before,  was  also  one  of  the 
starters,  and  Frank  Reeves,  who  was  a  little  out  of  his  ele- 
ment, completed  the  field.  When  Mr.  Conklin  saw  that  I 
had  Rarus  in  this  race  he  seemed  quite  x^leased  to  think  I 
would  give  uj)  Fullerton,  as  fast  a  horse  as  i^eople  supposed 
he  was,  to  keeiD  his  horse  and  trot  him,  and  asked  me  how 
I  came  to  do  it.  I  told  him  I  considered  Rarus  much  the 
better  horse  of  the  two,  and  that  I  thought  he  would  beat 
Fullerton  easily.  He  asked  me  what  I  figured  from.  F'ul- 
lerton  had  a  record  of  2:18,  and  had  shown  miles  much 
better — was,  in  fact,  considered  a  dangerous  competitor  for 
any  trotter  excej^t  Goldsmith  Maid.  I  told  Mr.  Conklin. 
that  I  could  have  driven  Rarus  in  2:20  over  the  half-mile 
track  at  Cincinnati,  and  I  did  not  think  Fullerton  had  ever 
seen  the  day  he  could  have  done  that.  After  our  return 
from  Cincinnati  we  had  a  week  before  the  Fleetwood  race, 
and  I  gave  Rarus  very  light  work,  the  best  mile  being  2:25^. 
I  stepped  him  down  the  hill  a  way  as  fast  as  he  could  go 
in  this  mile,  to  see  what  he  would  do  on  the  down  grade, 
and  noticed  that  ho  wanted  to  break,  and  acted  as  though 
he  was  not  properly  balanced.  In  the  last  half  of  the  mile 
1  sent  him  up  the  hill  fast,  and  this  grade  also  bothered 
him.  There  was  a  reverse  turn  right  in  the  sharpest  i^art 
of  the  hill,  and  that  seemed  to  annoy  him,  but  I  never  saw 
him  when  he  appeared  to  have  more  brush  in  the  stretch. 


LIFE  WITH   THE  TKOTTERS.  81 

After  thinking  the  matter  over  carefully,  I  concluded  to 
change  his  shoes,  and  iDut  a  little  more  weight  on  the  forward 
feet,  to  balance  him  going  down  the  hill.  I  was  sure  he 
would  out-trot  every  other  horse  in  the  race  if  it  came  to  a 
finish.  This  was  the  first  race  I  had  ever  had  Rarus  in 
where  I  felt  that  he  was  meeting  horses  that  were  anything 
like  his  equal  in  speed,  and  so  I  bent  all  my  energies  to 
have  him  in  the  pink  of  condition;  my  only  fear  was  that 
the  shape  of  the  track  might  make  him  unsteady.  In  shoe- 
ing him  I  put  about  two  ounces  more  on  the  forward  feet, 
and  when  we  scored  for  the  word  in  the  first  heat  I  was  in 
every  way  satisfied,  and  made  up  my  mind  that,  if  he  was 
beaten,  the  one  that  did  the  trick  would  get  a  great  mark. 


CHAPTER    lY. 

Rarus  wins  his  first  race  against  the  crack  trotters  of  the  country — A  private 
trial  in  fast  time  over  the  Fleetwood  track — The  trip  to  California  with 
Goldsmith  Maid — Another  fast  mile  in  private,  and  a  refusal  of  $45,000  for 
the  gelding — Andy  Daniels  and  the  cattle  raiser  at  Chico — Inside  facts 
about  the  race  in  which  Rarus  beat  Goldsmith  Maid — Coming  East  again, 
and  lowering  his  record  to  2:16 — The  wonderful  race  against  Great  Eastern 
at  Fleetwood  Park. 

In  the  betting,  Rarus,  Fullerton,  and  Great  Eastern  sold 
about  even,  Lucille  Golddust,  Smuggler,  and  Frank  Reeves 
composing  the  field.  I  concluded  to  follow  the  old  plan  of 
laying  up  a  heat  or  so,  and  did  this  for  two  reasons.  In  the 
fii^st  place  I  knew  Fullerton  to  be  a  fast  horse,  and  felt  that, 
with  Murphy  to  drive  him,  he  would  make  the  fight  from  the 
first  score,  as  that  was  the  plan  I  had  seen  Murphy  follow  in 
all  his  races.  Second,  the  irack  was  deep  from  rains,  and  I 
thought  that  every  minute  of  wind  and  sun  would  make  it 
better.  Fullerton  won  the  first  heat  in  2:22,  and  I  never  saw 
any  man  show  more  pleasure  and  excitement  than  did  the 
horse' s  owner,  Mr,  William  Humphrey,  at  the  finish  of  that 
mile.  The  New  Yorkers  go  Avild  over  John  Murphy,  and 
they  gave  him  a  cheer  when  he  came  back  to  the  wire,  the 
Irish  contingent  being  specially  vociferous.  I  think  Murphy 
felt  quite  confident  that  he  was  going  to  carry  off  the  race. 
In  this  heat  I  contented  myself  with  just  saving  my  distance. 
After  the  finish  Rarus  cooled  out  well,  and  I  had  never  seen 
him  when  he  was  a  better  horse.  I  talked  the  race  over  with 
Mr,  Conklin  and  Mr.  Crawford,  and  Ave  concluded  to  invest 
a  little  money  on  Rarus  at  the  odds,  which  had  shifted  in 
favor  of  Fullerton.     There  was  a  great  deal  of  betting,  the 

(83) 


LIFE   WITH   THE  TROTTEES.  83 

general  public  backing  Fullerton.  A  few  of  my  intimate 
friends,  like  Mr.  Simmons,  Jack  Bachelor,  and  Mace,  put 
down  their  money  on  my  chances.  We  decided  that  if  no 
one  else  gave  Fullerton  a  fight  for  the  second  heat,  we  would 
make  the  battle  with  Rarus.  In  the  meantime  there  was  a 
rumor  in  the  betting  ring  that  Feek  was  very  sweet  on  Great 
Eastern' s  chances,  and  the  betting  soon  showed  that  some- 
body was  i;)utting  a  lot  of  money  on  that  horse.  In  scoring 
for  the  second  heat  Great  Eastern  showed  as  much  speed  as 
Fullerton,  which  somewhat  suri)rised  the  crowd,  as  the 
chestnut  gelding  had  the  reputation  of  being  able  to  out- 
score  almost  any  horse  when  he  would  go  on  a  trot.  From 
the  way  in  which  Feek  scored  I  was  satisfied  that  he  would 
make  a  fight  for  the  heat,  and  so  determined  to  lay  uj)  again. 
Great  Eastern  and  Fullerton  Avent  at  each  other,  hammer 
and  tongs,  and  in  a  driving  linish  for  the  last  two  hundred 
yards.  Great  Eastern  outlasted  Fullerton  and  beat  him  half 
a  length,  in  2:20|-.  Taking  into  consideration  the  day  and 
track,  I  have  always  considered  this  the  best  mile  that  Great 
Eastern  ever  trotted. 

I  now  began  to  think  that  our  chances  looked  very  rosy, 
as  Fullerton  and  Eastern  had  gone  two  corking  miles,  and  I 
was  sure  that  Rarus  could  come  back  in  2:20,  which,  to  my 
mind,  was  certain  to  win.  In  going  off  in  the  third  heat  I 
concluded  that  Fullerton  and  Eastern  would  make  the  j)ace' 
from  the  start,  but  I  decided  to  drive  my  horse  a  rating  mile, 
IDaying  no  attention  to  the  brushes  that  they  might  indulge 
in.  Sure  enough,  the  XDair  went  away  with  the  lead,  I  con- 
tenting myself  with  fourth  place.  They  out-trotted  Rarus 
the  first  quarter,  but  in  going  along  the  Morrisania  side  I 
spoke  to  him,  and  he  moved  up  and  closed  a  part  of  the  gap. 
As  Ave  struck  the  hill  coming  to  the  Rocks,  Fullerton  broke, 
and  Great  Eastern  drew  away  from  Rarus.  I  could  never 
account  for  it,  but  I  never  saw  a  horse  that  could  outs^Deed 
Great  Eastern  going  up  this  hill.  What  is  usually  termed 
the  Point  of  Rocks  on  this  track  was  where  he  out-trolted 
Rarus  this  time,  and  ii^  another  race  he  did  the  same  thing. 


84  LIFE   WITH   THE   TROTTERS. 

After  we  were  over  the  hill  I  set  Rarus  going,  and  he  slowly 
closed  on  Great  Eastern.  Two  hundred  yards  from  the  wire 
he  had  him  beaten  by  a  neck.  Feek  drew  his  whip  and 
began  to  drive.  Eastern  responded  very  gamely,  and  went 
a  hundred  yards  with  Rarus,  but  from  that  point  out  he 
slowed  a  little,  and,  as  my  horse  kept  up  his  even  clip,  we 
were  first  to  the  wire  by  a  head,  in  2:21^.  The  fourth  heat 
Rarus  won  easily  by  two  lengths,  in  2:23,  and  then  the  race 
was  put  over  until  the  following  day. 

Although  the  time  of  these  heats  does  not  in  these  days 
appear  fast,  yet  when  one  takes  into  consideration  the  season 
of  year,  the  condition  the  track  was  in  from  rain,  and  the 
further  fact  that,  at  that  time,  the  fastest  mile  that  had  been 
made  by  any  horse  over  Fleetwood  in  a  race  was  2:19|,  it  will 
be  seen  that  Great  Eastern's  2:20J  was  certainly  a  first-class 
IDcrformance.  Rarus  did  not  seem  to  be  much  distressed 
after  the  race,  cooled  out  nicely,  took  his  feed  well,  and  in 
every  way  showed  me  that  the  struggle  had  done  him  no 
harm.  About  the  hotels  and  pool-rooms  that  night  there 
was  a  great  deal  of  gossip  over  the  race.  Rarus  had  rather 
surprised  the  people.  While  he  had  been  winning  his 
races  through  the  circuit,  he  had  not  met  a  horse  that  was 
considered  first  class.  The  manner,  therefore,  in  which  he 
handled  Great  Eastern  and  FuUerton  was  a  revelation  to 
the  public.  Of  course,  as  is  always  the  case  on  race-tracks, 
there  were  some  people  looking  for  an  excuse  when  an 
unexpected  horse  wins.  Some  of  them  said  that  Fullerton 
was  not  himself,  and  others  asserted  that  Feek  had  not 
driven  Great  Eastern  very  hard,  but  from  where  I  sat  in 
the  race,  I  concluded  that  Rarus  had  beaten  them  both  on 
their  merits,  and  felt  certain  that  he  would  win  again  the 
next  day.  Tliat  evening  Dunn  Walton  came  to  me  and 
asked  if  I  would  price  the  horse  to  him  for  a  gentleman 
who  wanted  to  buy.  In  our  talk,  he  insinuated  that  Rarus 
had  won  because  Fullerton  and  Great  Eastern  killed  each 
other,  while  my  horse  was  laid  up.  I  told  him  that  if  he 
felt  that  way  I  would  not  price  the  horse  to  him  that  even- 


LIFE   VflTH    THE   TROTTEES.  85 

ing,  but  tliat  when  we  trotted  the  followmg  day,  if  either 
Fiillerton  or  Great  Eastern  beat  Earns  to  the  half-mile  pole, 
I  would  price  him  much  cheax)er.  He  smiled,  and  com- 
menced to  tell  me  about  some  of  the  halves  that  Mace  had 
driven  Fullerton,  but  I  told  him  that  I  thought  Earns 
could  beat  Fullerton  any  race  from  the  length  of  a  corn-cob 
out  to  the  Eocky  Mountains,  and,  if  I  did  not  convince  him 
next  day  that  he  could  do  so,  I  would  buy  him  a  red  apple. 
Dunn  and  I  were  always  good  friends,  and  he  was  a  very  jolly 
companion.  We  staid  around  there  for  some  time,  talked 
the  race  over,  and  Dunn  told  me  that  he  had  not  got  his 
winter' s  coal  yet,  and  that,  if  Earns  was  that  kind  of  a  horse, 
he  would  take  a  few  tickets  on  him  in  the  morning,  and  fill 
up  his  coal-bin  with  the  proceeds,  which  he  did.  When 
the  race  was  called  the  next  day,  the  track  was  much  better, 
but  the  weather  was  very  raw  and  cold,  and  only  a  few  of 
the  great  number  of  people  that  we  had  seen  the  day  before 
came  to  witness  the  finish  of  the  contests.  I  gave  Earus  an 
easy  mile  about  twenty  minutes  before  the  call  of  the  race, 
not  better  than  2:30,  but  stepping  the  last  hundred  yards 
about  as  well  as  he  could  go.  An  idea  of  the  estimation  in 
which  I  held  the  horse  may  be  got  from  the  fact  that  when 
I  stepped  out  of  the  sulky,  Mr.  Simmons  asked  me  what  I 
thought  of  my  chances  of  winning,  and  I  told  him  that  I 
thought  he  would  win  sure,  and  further  that  he  could  beat 
any  horse  that  I  had  ever  seen,  Goldsmith  Maid  not  ex- 
cepted. There  had  been  much  talk  about  Fullerton  and 
Great  Eastern  out-trotting  Earus,  and,  when  I  thought  the 
matter  over  caret ull}^  I  made  up  my  mind  that  the  surest 
way  to  beat  them  both  was  to  carry  them  down  to  the  half- 
mile  pole  as  fast  as  they  could  go.  AYhen  the  word  was  given, 
Earus  had  the  pole,  and  Eastern  the  second  place,  with  a 
slight  advantage.  In  going  around  the  turn,  Feek's  horse 
crowded  me  a  trifle.  I  spoke  to  Jack,  and  he  pulled  him 
out.  At  this  time,  Feek's  wheel  was  at  my  horse's  neck, 
and  from  there  to  the  turn  beyond  the  quarter  pole  they  never 
changed  positions.     When  we  struck  that  turn,  Feek  had 


86  LIFE  WITH  THE  TEOTTEES. 

a  little  further  to  go,  and  Rarus  landed  liead-and-head  with 
liim.  From  that  point  to  the  half-mile  pole  they  went  like 
a  pair  of  horses  in  double  harness.  From  there  on,  how- 
ever, Rarus  out-trotted  Eastern,  beating  him  up  the  hill. 
As  we  came  by  Mace's  stables,  Dave  Muckle  yelled  to  me 
to  lookout,  or  I  would  beat  2:20.  By  this  time  Lucille 
Golddust  had  passed  FuUerton  and  Great  Eastern,  and 
overhauled  me  in  the  stretch,  but  Rarus  was  going  easy, 
and  when  she  came  up  I  spoke  to  him,  and  he  moved  out, 
and  beat  her  in  the  easiest  kind  of  style  in  2:20. 

Thus  ended  the  first  race  that  Rarus  had  ever  started  in 
against  a  field  of  horses  that  I  considered  anything  like  his 
class.  This  performance  convinced  me  that  I  was  right 
about  his  ability  as  a  trotting  horse.  The  easy  manner  in 
which  he  handled  FuUerton  and  Great  Eastern,  when  I  had 
really  set  out  to  race  with  them,  proved  to  me  conclusively 
the  tnith  of  all  that  I  had  thought  of  him.  Up  to  this  time 
he  won  every  race  but  one  I  had  driven  him,  beating  all  the 
horses  in  his  own  class,  and  finally  winning  a  free-for-all 
race  with  Goldsmith  Maid  barred,  but  all  the  other  good 
ones  in.  In  doing  all  this  he  had  not  beaten  2:20.  This 
was  a  great  comfort  to  me  at  that  time,  although,  as  I  shall 
subsequently  show,  he  might  as  well  have  gone  in  2:10  that 
day,  for  all  the  effect  it  had  on  his  future  career.  In' talking 
the  matter  over  with  Mr.  Conklin  that  night,  I  found  that 
he  seemed  very  much  pleased  in  anticipation  of  the  satis- 
faction he  expected  to  derive  from  hearing  his  neighbors 
take  back  all  they  had  said  about  his  being  daft  when  he 
predicted  that  Rarus  would  some  day  beat  all  the  best 
horses  in  the  country. 

The  night  after  the  race  I  met  Mr.  Doble  in  the  Gilsey 
House,  New  York,  and  we  naturally  fell  to  talking  about  it. 
He  told  me  he  thought  Rarus  had  the  making  of  a  Avonder- 
ful  horse.  Up  to  this  time  I  had  known  Budd  only  in  a 
general  way,  he  being  a  few  years  older  than  myself,  and, 
as  I  had  always  been  connected  with  Mace,  I  never  trained 
in  his  line,  as  it  were.      In  the  course  of  our  conversation, 


LIFE   WITH   THE   TKOTTEES.  87 

California,  and  the  effect  its  climate  had  on  trotting  horses, 
was  mentioned,  Doble  giving  me  his  views  in  a  general  way, 
and  it  set  me  to  thinking  whether  or  not  it  would  not  be  a 
good  thing  to  take  Rarus  to  California.  The  more  I  thought 
of  it,  the  more  I  was  convinced  it  would  be  a  good  plan.  I 
went  to  Long  Island,  and  talked  the  matter  over  with  Mr. 
Conklin.  We  staid  ux3  late  in  the  night,  and  viewed  the 
plan  from  every  standpoint.  Of  course  there  was  a  chance 
of  accident,  etc. ,  in  shipping  a  valuable  horse  such  a  long- 
trip;  but,  after  a  general  discussion,  Mr.  Conklin  agreed  to 
leave  tliemat;er  entirely  with  me.  I  came  back  to  New 
York,  thinking  I  would  have  another  talk  with  Mr.  Doble, 
but  was  disapx)ointed  to  learn  that  he  had  left  for  Philadel- 
phia. The  following  week  I  went  to  Philadelphia,  and 
sj)ent  the  day  with  Budd.  I  had  a  further  talk  with  him 
on  the  subject  in  question,  and  the  result  was  that  I  decided 
to  ship  Rarus  to  California.  Budd  said  he  was  going  i  o 
send  his  horses  from  Chicago  in  a  short  time,  and  that  I 
would  be  welcome  to  go  in  his  car  if  I  liked  to  come.  I 
went  back  to  New  York,  and  made  my  arrangements  to  go. 
After  concluding  to  take  my  trip  to  the  slope,  I  was 
rather  anxious  to  see  Rarus  go  a  mile  as  well  as  he  could. 
I  met  Mr.  Arthur  Gillender  in  the  evening,  and,  in  talking 
of  the  merits  of  the  horse,  I  told  him  I  thought  he  could 
trot  a  mile  over  Fleetwood  better  than  2:18.  He  rather 
doubted  that  statement,  and  the  conversation  ended  by  my 
inviting  him  to  go  to  the  track  the  next  morning  and  time  him 
while  I  drove  him  a  mile  about  as  well  as  he  could  go,  as  I 
thouglit  then  he  was  in  sha^De  to  go  a  good  mile.  When  we 
arrived  at  the  track  M^e  found  it  in  very  good  shape,  but  tlie 
day  was  rather  cool.  I  gave  Rarus  a  warming  up  mile  in 
2:25,  and  twenty  minutes  later  repeated  him  in  2:17,  which 
Avas  three  seconds  faster  than  I  had  ever  driven  him  before 
in  public  or  j^rivate.  This  I  thought  a  remarkable  mile,  as 
I  kept  him  well  out  from  the  pole  all  the  w^ay,  and  the  track 
at  its  best  was  never  very  fast.  When  Mr.  Gillender  came 
back  to  me,  he  said:   "  Splan,  you  match  that  horse  against 


88  LIFE  WITH   THE   TROTTERS. 

Goldsmith  Maid  for  five  or  ten  thousand  dollars  a  side,  and 
if  she  beats  him  I  will  do  the  losing."  I  had  thought  for  a 
long  time  that  Rarus  would  be  able  to  beat  Goldsmith  Maid 
some  day,  and  lower  her  record;  but  I  Avas  not  quite  so  san- 
guine at  that  time  as  Mr.  Gillender,  for  1  knew  that  before 
my  horse  could  defeat  the  Maid  he  would  need  some  further 
education.  I  had  seen  a  good  many  fast  horses  have  a  shy 
at  her,  and  the  consequence  generally  was  that,  sooner  or 
later,  they  got  beaten.  I  made  up  my  mind  to  i^rofit  by 
their  experience,  and  not  give  her  a  fight  until  I  was  sure  I 
had  everything  right. 

In  the  meantime  the  Utica  Park  Association  had  ofl'ered 
a  i^urse  for  Rarus  and  Great  Eastern  to  go  a  race  to  wagons. 
I  concluded  to  enter  Rarus  there,  as  it  was  on  my  direct 
road  to  Chicago,  and  did  so.  In  going  to  Utica  from  New 
York  it  turned  out,  owing  to  the  delay  from  an  accident,  that 
we  never  reached  the  track  until  the  morning  of  the  race. 
The  track  was  wet  and  muddy,  and  Rarus  seemed  sore  from 
his  long  standing  in  the  cars.  Great  Eastern  beat  him  in 
straight  heats,  the  time  being  2:35,  2:30,  2:24|.  The  cause 
of  the  first  heat  being  so  slow  was  that  Rarus  thrcAv  a  shoe. 
After  this  race  I  shipped  Rarus  to  Chicago,  and  from  there, 
in  Mr,  Doble's  car,  to  San  Francisco.  AVe  reached  Califor- 
nia about  the  latter  days  of  November,  and  on  my  way  there 
I  improved  my  time  making  the  further  acquaintance  of 
Doble.  I  thought  to  myself:  "Here  is  a  man  that  has 
trained  the  only  horse  that  ever  trotted  a  mile  in  2:14."  I 
knew  enough  about  horses  to  be  well  aware  that,  be  a  trotter 
ever  so  good,  the  animal  must  be  well  trained  to  perform 
such  a  wonderful  feat.  Thinking  that  I  had  a  horse  that 
was  able  to  go  that  well,  if  properly  handled,  I  made  up  my 
mind  to  leai  n  everything  I  could  from  Mr.  Doble  in  the  way 
of  fitting  a  horse  for  such  a  performance.  I  stated  the  case 
to  him,  and  he,  with  his  usual  modesty,  told  me  that,  if 
there  was  anything  he  could  teach  me,  he  would  be  glad  to 
do  it,  but  from  what  he  had  seen  of  me,  sldrmishing  along 
the  line  with  the  boys,  he  thought,  perhaps,  I  was  as  liable 


LIFE   WITH  THE  TROTTEKS.  89 

to  hustle  a.  liorse  around  in  2:14  as  anyone  he  knew.  AYlien 
we  arrived  at  San  Francisco,  and  got  ready  to  train  the 
horses,  I  said  to  Mr  Doble  again  that  I  woukl  consider  it  a 
favor  if  he  would  give  me  his  ideas  about  training  that  par- 
ticular horse.  I  have  always  been  a  believer  in  giving  every 
man  credit  for  what  I  thought  was  his  due,  and  for  that 
reason  I  wish  to  state  here  that  Mr.  Doble  taught  me  many 
things  about  training  horses  that  other  peox)le  might  have 
known  about,  })ut  which,  up  to  that  time,  had  never  entered 
m}^  head.  He  was  one  of  the  first  men  that  ever  taught  me 
the  danger  of  overfeeding  a  liorse.  Rarus  was,  without 
exception,  the  greatest  feeder  I  ever  saw.  I  held  at  that 
time  what  I  have  since  considered  a  mistaken  idea,  that  it 
was  proper  to  give  a  horse  all  he  wanted  to  eat  in  the  way 
of  grain,  etc. 

Another  thing  that  Budd  taught  me  was  that  a  horse 
could  be  put  in  condition  with  a  great  deal  less  fast  work 
than  I  had  at  that  time  sux)i)Osed  possible.  His  idea  was  to 
give  them  plenty  of  what  we  call  three-quarter  speed,  with 
longer  work  from  a  mile  to  a  mile  and-a-half  and  tAvo-mile 
heats,  never  under  any  consideration  giving  them  what 
some  of  the  boys  term  ' '  reefing. ' '  He  advised  me  a  good 
deal  about  the  shoeing  of  Rarus,  and  about  this  time  some- 
thing happened  to  that  horse  that  1  never  saw  in  any  other. 
He  had  a  quarter-crack  in  one  of  his  hind  feet.  When  I 
saw  that,  I  thought  the  Jig  was  up  for  the  present.  Budd 
told  me  that  the  Maid  once  had  such  a  foot,  and  that  he 
could  fix  the  wound  so  that  I  could  work  Rarus  without 
any  trouble.  We  took  him  to  the  shop  and  had  him  shod 
with  a  bar-shoe  on  the  affected  foot.  Then  we  took  a  saw' 
and  sawed  the  bearing  out  underneath  and  had  the  fo(<t 
sewed  in  a  canvas  bandage  with  some  balsam  of  fir.  I  kei)t 
him  at  work,  seeing  that  the  foot  was  always  clean,  and  re- 
newing the  bandage  occasionally,  and  I  never  saw  any  plan 
work  better.  For  the  first  thirty  days  I  gave  Rarus  no  work 
better  than  2:25.  The  Californians  who  came  out  with  their 
watches  eveiy  morning  to  see  him  go  became  rather  dis- 


90  LIFE   YflTH   THE  TEOTTERS. 

giisted,  and  concluded  that  the  stories  thej^  had  heard 
about  his  speed  were,  to  say  the  least,  a  little  overdrawn. 
After  timing  him  a  good  many  miles  in  from  2:25  to  2:27, 
and  seeing  no  part  of  a  mile  done  at  any  better  rate,  they 
shut  up  their  watches  and  Avent  to  sleep.  1  think  that  before 
the  winter  was  over  they  regretted  having  done  so. 

On  Budd's  return  to  San  Francisco  he  had  sent  Sam 
Purdy  to  the  stable  of  his  OAvner.  I  met  that  gentleman 
one  day,  and  he  asked  me  how  I  explained  Rams  beating 
Purdy  at  Fleetwood  to  a  wagon.  I  told  him  I  thought 
Rarus  rather  out- trotted  Purdy.  This  seemed  to  roil  the 
gentleman  slightly,  and  he  i^roiDOsed  a  match.  I  arranged 
a  race  with  him  on  the  spot.  At  this  time  there  was  in 
California  quite  a  celebrated  driver  by  the  name  of  Tom 
McClellan.  The  i)eoi)le  there  seemed  to  have  a  great  deal  of 
confidence  in  his  ability,  but  I  always  thought  him  a  little 
on  the  slam-bang  order.  He  weighed  at  this  time  about  190 
pounds.  Purdy  was  placed  in  his  hands  to  condition  and 
drive  in  the  race.  I  made  up  my  mind  that,  if  Purd}"  could 
draw  190  pounds  against  Rarus'  150,  and  beat  him,  I  would 
not  have  any  mone^^  left  when  the  race  was  over.  Purdy 
was  rather  a  lazy  horse,  and  the  people  of  California  fancied 
that  McClellan  could  drive  him  better  than  Mr.  Doble, 
arguing  that  Budd  was  not  severe  enough  with  him.  The 
race  came  off,  and  Rarus  beat  Purdy  in  straight  heats,  the 
fastest  being  2:26^.  This  was  in  the  last  mile.  I  made  a 
close  race  of  this  at  the  finish.  Just  beating  Purdy  and  that 
was  all.  I  trotted  Rarus  three  races  that  A^inter  in  Califor- 
nia, which  he  won,  the  first  being  against  St.  James  and 
May  Howard,  and  another  against  Bodine,  and  then  came  a 
race  about  which  I  desire  to  say  something  in  detail. 

Having  no  further  engagements  for  Rarus,  I  thought 
this  a  good  time  to  find  out  something  about  his  speed 
under  the  watch.  About  this  time  Mr.  Conklin  ]3aid  Cali- 
fornia a  visit  to  see  Rarus  and  myself,  and  I  told  him  that 
if  he  wished  to  see  Rarus  go  a  mile  under  the  watch  I 
would  put  him  in  order  and  we  would  give  him  a  mile  to 


LIFE    WITH   THE   TROTTERS,  91 

get  a  line  on  him,  as  I  had  never  driven  him  a  mile  better 
than  2:20  but  once,  and  that  was  for  Mr.  Gillender,  at  Fleet- 
wood, where  he  went  in  2:17.  The  day  Goldsmith  Maid 
was  twenty-one  years  old  Biidd  drove  her  for  Governor  Stan- 
ford a  mile  in  2:16,  a  performance  that  I  never  expect  to  see 
any  other  animal  make  under  similar  conditions,  and  that  I 
think  si^eaks  volumes  for  Mr.  Doble'  s  ability  and  care  as  a 
trainer  and  driver.  To  have  had  a  mare  under  his  charge 
all  those  years,  and  to  have  driven  her  over  all  kinds  of 
tracks,  travel  the  country  with  her  in  steam  cars  from  one 
end  to  the  other,  and  then  drive  her  a  mile  in  2:16  the  day 
she  was  twenty-one  years  old,  stamps  him  in  my  mind  as 
a  trainer  without  a  peer,  if  he  had  never  done  anything  else 
in  the  line.  When  Mr.  Conklin  saw  the  time  on  the  board  he 
asked  me  if  I  thought  Rarus  could  do  that,  and  I  said, ' '  Yes, 
sure."  The  day  following  Mr.  Conklin  and  myself  drove 
out  the  Bay  District  road,  and  I  gave  Rarus  a  couple  of  miles 
in  about  2:25.  Twenty  minutes  after,  I  brought  him  to  the 
track,  and  asked  Mr.  Covey,  at  that  timf  the  suj)erintendent 
of  Governor  Stanford's  farm,  to  go  with  Mr.  Conklin  and 
time  him.  I  scored  uj)  for  the  word,  and  at  the  iirst  attemj)t 
Rarus  went  the  first  quarter  in  34  seconds,  the  second  in  34 
seconds,  the  third  in  34  seconds,  and  the  fourth  in  33 
seconds.  I  sx)oke  to  him  at  the  distance  stand  and  from 
there  to  the  judges'  stand  he  stepiDed  off  at  a  pace  that  I 
have  never  seen  any  other  trotter  make.  He  finished  strong 
in  2:15. 

I  don't  think  Mr.  Conklin  was  much  surprised,  and  I 
myself  was  not  in  the  least,  as  I  was  sure  he  could  do  all  that 
and  more;  but  Mr.  Covey  was  about  as  astonished  a  man  as 
I  saw  while  I  was  on  the  coast.  He  immediately  asked  me 
what  I  would  take  for  Rarus  if  he  was  for  sale.  I  told  him 
that  Mr.  Conklin  was  the  only  man  I  knew  who  could 
answer  that  question.  When  he  asked  Mr.  Conklin  if  the 
horse  was  for  sale,  "Pai?,"  as  we  always  called  him  about 
the  stable,  said,  no;  that  he  did  not  think  that  he  would 
care  to  part  with  his  horse.     After  considering  a  moment 

7 


92  lifp:  with  the  tkotters. 

Mr.  Covey  said:  "Mr.  Conklin,  I  will  give  you  $45,000 
for  tliac  horse,  and  you  need  not  take  the  harness  from 
him. "  I  expected  to  hear  my  partner  say,  ' '  I  am  going  to 
let  you  have  the  horse,"  ]but  he  answered  "  No,"  in  about 
the  saniB  tone  of  voice  that  he  might  have  used  had  he  been 
offered  a  respectable  price  for  a  barrel  of  flour.  When  Mr. 
Covey  left  us,  Mr.  Conklin  asked  me  how  well  I  thought  I 
could  drive  Rarus  a  mile  if  I  sent  him  "for  all  he  was  worth. 
I  told  him  I  thought  about  2:12,  and  asked  him  if  he  did 
not  think  he  had  better  take  the  $45,000.  He  said,  no; 
that  Rarus  could  earn  that  much  money,  and  that  he  thought 
he  would  be  able  to  sell  him  for  that  price  at  almost  any 
time,  all  of  which  became  history  afterward.  I  afterward 
learned  that  Mr.  Covey  made  the  offer  for  a  wealthy  citizen 
of  San  Francisco,  who  was  anxious  to  ovm.  the  best  horse  in 
the  world. 

A  f ter  I  got  my  horse  in  condition  Mr.  Doble  and  myself 
started  out  to  trot  a  few  races  with  the  Maid  and  Rarus, 
it  being  now  the  latter  part  of  March.  These  races,  by 
the  way,  were  advertised  as  exhibition  purses,  it  being 
announced  on  each  occasion  that  there  would  be  no  pool- 
selling,  and  that  Goldsmith  Maid  would  try  to  beat  her 
record.  The  reason  why  we  advertised  it  in  that  manner 
was  that  I  did  not  think  that  Rarus  was  in  order  to  beat  the 
Maid,  and  I  did  not  want  to  go  out  and  tear  him  to  pieces 
against  such  a  mare  as  I  knew  she  was.  I  never  deceived 
anybody  in  niij  way  with  regard  to  my  trj  ing  to  beat  the 
Maid  with  Rarus,  and  no  one  ever  expected  when  they  i)aid 
their  dollar  at  the  gate  that  I  would.  The  reason  I  make 
this  explanation  is,  that  a  race  came  off  afterward  about 
which  there  was  a  great  deal  of  newsx)aper  criticism,  and 
which  I  will  explain  when  the  proper  time  arrives.  At  San 
Jose,  on  the  31st  of  March,  we  trotted  the  first  of  these 
races,  the  Maid  winning  in  straight  heats,  going  the  fastest 
mile  in  2:1G|.  Nearly  a  month  later,  on  April  28,  we 
took  the  horses  to  Los  Angeles  to  give  another  exhibition. 
Budd  was  taken  sick,  and  was  not  able  to  leave  his  bed. 


LIFE   WITn    THE  THOTTERS.  93 

Wliat  to  do  I  did  not  know.  The  exhibition  was  adver- 
tised, and  the  town  fnll  of  people.  Right  here  I  may  tell  a 
little  story  that  will  serve  to  show  the  uncertainties  of  horse- 
racing.  We  also  had  with  us  on  tliis  trip  Bodine  and  Occi- 
dent, the  latter  being  a  horse  that  at  that  time  belonged  to 
Senator  Stanford,  of  California,  and  that  had  made  a  record 
of  2:1 6|,  which  at  the  time  of  the  performance  was  the  best 
mile  ever  trotted  on  the  Pacific  coast.  Occident  was  a  horse 
of  most  romantic  history,  having  been  taken  out  of  a  ped- 
dler's cart  and  his  speed  developed  when  he  was  past  the 
age  of  maturity  in  most  horses,  and  further  handicapped  by 
not  being  any  too  sound.  The  fact  that  Governor  Stanford 
owned  him,  and  that  lie  had  gone  such  a  fast  mile  made 
Occident  a  great  attraction  on  the  coast,  and  he  would 
always  draw  a  crowd.  Bodine,  a  horse  that  was  in  my 
string,  had  been  sent  to  California  from  Chicago  by  Mr. 
Goodrich,  his  owner,  who  understood  that  a  winter  in  that 
climate  would  help  him  a  great  deal,  he  having  been  pretty 
well  worn  out  by  his  races  of  the  previous  summer.  These 
two  were  to  trot  for  a  purse,  and  I  was  always  firm  in  the 
belief  that  Bodine  could  beat  Occident  easily  over  any  track. 
At  this  time  they  had  never  trotted  together.  Budd  con- 
cluded that  the  best  thing  he  could  do  was  to  get  someone 
to  drive  Occident  and  the  Maid  for  him,  rather  than  disaj)- 
point  the  peo^^le.  A  leading  driver  of  those  parts  was 
Henry  McGregor,  who  originally  hailed  from  Michigan. 
Budd  arranged  with  him  to  drive  the  race,  and  it  looked  to 
me  as  though  Bodine  had  a  cinch  on  Occident,  as  I  knew 
he  was  rather  a  peculiar  horse  to  handle,  and  McGregor  liad 
never  }:»een  behind  him.  Uncle  Ben  Wright,  of  Boston,  hap- 
pened to  be  over  on  a  trip  for  his  health,  and  to  his  willing- 
ear  I  confided  the  good  thing  I  had  on  the  boys  and  told 
him  to  play  mj'- horse.  He  asked  me  how  high  he  should 
play  him,  and  I  told  him  just  as  high  and  as  long  as  any- 
body would  play  the  other  one,  and  have  always  been  sorry 
since  that  the  other  peojole  hung  on  so  long,  as  the  race 
came  off  and  Occident  beat  Bodine  in  five  heats.     That  was 


94  LIFE  WITH  THE  TROTTEES. 

the  first  time  I  ever  heard  the  remark  applied  to  a  horse 
race:  ''We  have  met  the  enemy,  and  we  are  theirs,"  which 
was  the  expression  to  which  my  partner  gave  utterance 
when  I  saw  him  after  the  deciding  heat.  In  the  race  with 
Rarus  at  Los  Angeles,  G  jldsnnth  Maid  won,  the  best  time 
being  2:19.  It  is  needless  to  remark  that  Henry  McGregor  s 
stock  as  a  trotting-horse  driver  went  up  a  couple  of  points, 
after  beating  Bodine  with  Occident,  and  Rarus  with  Gold- 
smith maid,  and  for  all  I  may  know  he  may  still  be  enjoying 
the  fruits  of  that  victory  in  increased  patronage. 

From  Los  Angeles  we  shi]5i)ed  to  §an  Jose,  where,  on 
May  12,  the  Maid  again  went  three  heats  against  Rarus, 
the  time  being  2:16J.  Then  we  shipped  to  Chico,  where 
there  was  a  new  and  very  fine  track,  and  in  this  race  occurred 
an  incident  which  has  always  seemed  to  me  one  of  the  most 
ludicrous  that  ever  occurred  in  connection  with  trotting. 
Among  our  contingent  of.  side  part^ners  was  Andy  Daniels, 
then  a  hale,  bright-eyed  gentleman,  who  had  been  a  horse- 
man, trainer,  and  owner  when  I  Avas  a  boy  and  used  to  creep 
in  under  the  canvas,  he  having  been  one  of  the  original 
party  who  purchased  the  mare  Princess,  that  after\\;ard  be- 
came the  dam  of  the  stallion  Happy  Medium,  and  took  her 
to  California,  where  she  trotted  so  many  famous  long-dis- 
tance races.  Daniels  had  buffeted  the  waves  of  fortune  for 
many  years,  sometimes  being  on  the  foam-crested  billoAvs 
of  prosperity,  and  again  on  the  rocks  of  disappointment 
and  adversity;  but  no  shock,  however  severe,  could,  for  an 
instant,  crush  his  exuberant  siDirits,  and  he  was  always  ready 
to  again  put  on  the  gloves  with  fickle  fortune.  When  we 
got  to  Chico  there  was  a  great  crowd  that  had  come  in  from 
the  surrounding  country  to  witness  the  race  and  the  inaugu- 
ration of  the  new  race-track,  which,  in  those  days,  in  that 
country,  was  far  more  imj)ortant  in  their  estimation  than 
the  dedication  of  a  church.  Among  them  was  a  wealthy 
ranchman,  and  who  had  never  seen  any  really  first-class 
trotters.  Some  of  the  fastest  ones  in  his  country  were  able 
to  step  in  2:30,  or  thereabouts,  and  he  had  got  it  fixed  in 


LIFE   WITH   THE  TROTTEES.  95 

liis  mind  that  these  figures  reiDresented  the  acme  of  trotting 
speed.  As  I  stated  before,  there  was  no  pool-selling  at  these 
exhibitions  by  Maid  and  Rarus  ;  but,  in  some  way  or  other, 
Andy  Daniels  fell  foul  of  the  ranchman  an  hour  or  two  j)re- 
ceding  the  race,  and  the  Californian  at  once  stated  his 
opinion  of  our  combination,  finally  winding  up  by  offering 
to  bet  a  large  sum  of  money  that  there  was  not  a  horse  in 
the  outfit  that  could  beat  2:17  over  that  track.  Daniels 
came  to  see  me  for  a  diagnosis  of  the  case,  and  after  he  had 
stated  the  conversation  I  advised  him  to  go  back  and  bet 
the  stranger  a  reasonable  amount  that  2:17  would  be  beaten. 
With  his  usual  enthusiasm  in  such  matters,  Andy  hunted 
up  his  man  at  once,  and  before  he  had  left  him  had  bet  him 
all  the  money  he  had  and  given  his  assurance  that  enough 
more  would  be  forthcoming  to  satisfy  all  the  cattle-raisers 
in  that  section  of  the  country.  Doble  came  on  from  Los 
Angeles  on  the  morning  of  the  race,  and  I  told  him  about 
the  money«that  Daniels  had  bet  on  2:17  being  beaten.  Budcl 
was  not  very  sanguine  about  the  matter,  but  we  went  out 
to  trot  with  the  intention  of  doing  all  that  we  could  to  win 
the  money  for  Daniels  and  ourselves.  In  the  first  heat  the 
Maid  went  about  as  well  as  she  could,  Doble  driving  her 
almost  all  of  the  way  ;  but  she  seemed  tied  up,  and  not  ex- 
actly at  herself,  the  result  being  that  she  finished  the  mile 
in  2:19|^  and  was  pretty  well  strung  out.  Doble  said  to  me 
it  was  not  x^ossible  for  her  to  beat  2:17  that  day.  I  thought 
the  matter  over  and  then  rex^lied  to  Budd,  'Til  give  you 
one  more  chance  to  get  the  money,  and  then  if  you  don't  do 
it,  I  shall  have  to  see  how  my  old  horse  can  go."  When  we 
started  for  the  second  heat  the  Maid  went  away  faster  than 
before,  and  struck  the  half-mile  pole  in  just  1:07|^,  beating 
Rarus  to  that  point  five  or  six  lengths.  From  there  he 
closed  on  her  gradually  until  they  turned  into  the  stretch, 
when  he  was  on  her  wheel.  She  made  one  break ;  but,  to 
say  the  least,  it  was  not  a  bad  one,  and  she  came  to  the 
stand  on  a  trot  at  2:14^,  beating  Rarus  the  heat.  When 
they  hung  out  the  time  on  the  board,  the  cattlemen  took  a 


96  LIFE  WITH    THE   TKOTTEllS, 

look  at  it,  turned  to  Daniels  and  said  :  ' '  My  pretty  boy  from 
San  Francisco,  you  have  liad  a  sliade  the  best  of  me.  I  have 
been  betting  you  did  not  have  one  horse  in  your  outfit  that 
could  trot  in  2:17.  Judging  from  the  way  these  two  acted, 
I  don' t  doubt  now  that  you  have  a  whole  barn-yard  full 
that  can  go  that  well."  As  Andy  had  won  the  money  and 
was  in  a  ha^opy  frame  of  mind,  he  could  afford  to  be  pleasant 
with  the  countryman. 

As  Mr.  Conklin  and  myself  were  visiting  a  friend  that 
evening,  I  told  him  I  was  sure  that  Rarus  could  beat  the 
Maid  a  good  deal  oftener  than  she  could  him — in  fact,  that 
I  did  not  think,  from  the  present  as^Dect  of  affairs,  that  she 
could  beat  him  at  all.  We  then  came  back  to  San  Francisco, 
where  we  had  other  engagements,  and  there  occurred  a  race 
which  has  already  been  criticised  by  the  press,  public,  and 
pool-buyers,  from  every  possible  standx^oint,  and  I  have 
been  accused  in  connection  with  it,  of  everything  in  the 
world  excepting  murder  in  the  first  degree,  an'd,  like  the 
gentleman  in  tlie  story  who  devoted  most  of  his  last  will 
and  testament  to  a  vindication  of  a  charge  that  had  been 
made  against  him,  I  want  to  state  my  side  of  this  race 
before  I  die,  and  while  some  of  the  other  people  that  were 
connected  with  it  are  still  on  earth.  Mr.  Doble  had  often- 
times, when  I  had  been  otherwise  engaged,  driven  my 
horses  in  their  work  for  me,  and  I  had  done  the  same  for 
him.  Perhaps  ten  or  fifteen  different  times  through  the 
winter,  I  had  driven  Goldsmith  Maid  under  his  directions  in 
his  absence.  After  our  return  to  San  Francisco,  our  first 
plans  were  to  go  East  immediately.  With  this  idea  in  view, 
we  commenced  prexDaring  the  horses  for  tlie  tri}).  One 
morning  when  I  was  going  to  the  track,  Mr.  Doble  asked 
me  if  I  ^vould  not  work  Goldsmith  Maid  a  couj)le  of  miles 
at  a  certain  pace,  and  gave  me  an  order  on  "  Old  Charlie,'' 
who  rubbed  the  mare,  to  that  effect.  I  worked  her  exactly 
as  Mr.  Doble  directed.  If  I  remember  right,  he  told  me  to 
drive  her  two  miles  in  about  2:25.  I  recall  perfectly  that  I 
drove  her  within  three-fourths  of  a  second  of  ^vhat  he  told 


LIFE   WITH   THE   TKOTTEES.  97 

me  to  do,  which  for  a  boy  seemed  to  me  pretty  fair.  About 
this  time  the  x3roi3rietor  of  the  Oakland  track  advertised  a 
purse,  free  for  all  horses,  entries  to  close  at  a  certain  day. 
I  did  not  ask  Budd  whether  he  was  going  to  trot  Goldsmith 
Maid,  and  he  did  not  ask  me  whether  I  intended  to  start 
Rarus.  I  did  not  think  Badd  would  enter  his  mare,  from 
the  fact  that  I  had  often  heard  him  say  he  would  never 
start  her  in  another  purse.  When  the  entries  were  oi)ened, 
I  was  somewhat  surjuised  To  learn  that  Budd  had  nomi- 
nated Goldsmith  Maid.  I  had  entered  Rarus,  and  I  think 
sent  a  check  for  his  entrance.  I  saw  the  proprietor  of  the 
track,  and  he  informed  me  there  were  only  those  two  entries, 
but  that  if  I  would  guarantee  to  give  Goldsmith  Maid  a 
race,  he  would  let  the  money  go  for  these  two.  I  never 
knew  what  he  said  to  Budd,  if  anything;  but  I  don't  think 
he  had  any  talk  with  him  about  it.  I  had  already,  in  my 
own  mind,  concluded  to  give  Goldsmith  Maid  a  race  at  that 
time,  although  I  did  not  care  to  state  so  to  the  i)roprietoi'  of 
the  track,  as  that  was  a  matter  that  I  thought  ^\•ould  be 
worth  something  to  me  to  keej)  to  myself.  xVnyway,  the 
proprietor  accepted  the  entries,  advertised  the  race  to  come 
off  in  connection  with  the  balance  of  his  meeting,  and  I 
commenced  to  get  my  tools  ready  to  give  i3eoj)le  what  Jack 
Phillips  calls  "a  yearly  killing."  I  never  talked  to  any 
one  about  the  race  in  any  way,  shape,  or  manner,  with  the 
exceiDtion  of  a  gentleman  of  the  name  of  Kenner,  whose 
acquaintance  I  had  made  while  in  San  Francisco,  and 
who  was  in  the  habit  of  doing  a  little  betting,  occasionally. 
I  worked  my  horse  out  about  three  days  before  the  race, 
and  then  and  there  decided  to  back  him  and  try  to  beat 
Goldsmith  Maid.  I  went  to  Mr.  Kenner,  stated  the  case  to 
him,  told  him  that  I  Avas  sure  I  could  beat  the  Maid,  pointed 
out  that  she  was  old,  and  that  if  it  came  to  a  long-drawn  fight 
Rarus  must  certainly  wear  her  out,  and  that  I  believed  he 
could  out-trot  her  in  tlie  first  half-mile  in  the  first  heat.  I  fur- 
ther told  him  that  if  Rarus  did  not  beat  the  Maid,  Iwouklbe 
more  mistaken  than  I  had  been  about  a  race  for  a  longtime. 


98  LIFE  WITH   THE  TROTTERS. 

Mr,  Conklin  was  in  San  Francisco  at  the  time,  but  he 
never  seemed  to  take  much  interest  in  the  details  of  the 
races.  He  always  api^eared  satisfied  to  leave  everything  to 
me,  and  never  wanted  to  bet  any  money,  with  the  exception 
of  what  I  bet  for  him,  and  for  that  reason  I  never  said  aily- 
thing  to  him  about  this  race.  Mr.  Conklin' s  son  was  there, 
but  I  did  not  even  tell  him,  and  if  I  remember  rightly,  he 
had  a  few  small  tickets  on  Goldsmith  Maid.  I  told  Mr. 
Kenner  that  I  would  like  to  have  him  manage  the  betting, 
that  I  had  not  told  any  one  else  what  I  was  doing,  and 
that  he  was  to  look  after  that  part  of  the  race  entirely, 
while  I  took  care  of  the  other  end  of  it.  I  think  the  arrange- 
ment was,  that  we  were  to  divide  the  i^rofits  or  losses  of  the 
130ol-boxinto  three  equal  parts,  the  sharers  being  Mr.  Kenner, 
Mr.  Conklin,  and  myself.  While  this  was  going  on,  I  saw 
Budd  occasionally,  but  I  did  not  consider  that  he  had  any 
claims  to  know  my  business,  and  I  did  not  tell  it  to  him. 
The  bettin"g  opened  on  the  race  two  or  three  days  before  the 
day  fixed  for  it,  in  the  Lick  House  saloon,  Goldsmith  Maid 
starting  off  the  biggest  kind  of  a  favorite.  On  the  day  of 
the  race  Mr.  Kenner  played  Rarus  rather  carefully,  not 
daring  to  pile  it  on  too  hard  for  fear  it  might  spoil  our 
chances.  When  the  day  of  the  race  came  on  and  the  people 
arrived  at  the  track,  they  were  a  little  surprised  to  see  a  man 
continually  backing  Rarus  against  Goldsmith  Maid  at  the 
odds.  So  persistently  did  this  man  play  my  horse,  that 
at  the  end  of  an  hour  he  had  forced  him  up  in  betting  con- 
siderably. The  effect  was  somewhat  like  that  of  a  man  buy- 
ing all  the  wheat  offered  on  the  Chicago  Board  of  Trade, 
thus  forcing  uj)  the  price  of  it.  About  the  time  the  race  was 
to  be  called,  a  sample  pool  was :  Goldsmith  Maid,  $500, 
Rarus,  $450.  A  friend  of  Budd' s  came  do\\Ti  to  the  stable 
where  he  Was  standing  and  told  him  in  my  x^resence  how  the 
betting  was.  Budd  seemed  to  realize  that  there  was  some- 
thing going  on,  and  he  turned  and  asked  me  what  I  thought 
made  that  betting.  I  told  him  very  frankly  that  it  was  my 
money  going  on  Rarus.     He  seemed  surprised,  and  then  I 


LIFE    WITH   THE   TEOTTEllS.  99 

told  him  further  that  I  Avould  win,  sure.  At  this  time  it 
was  raining  and  continued  to  do  so  until  it  was  likely  to 
make  the  track  slightly  disagreeable.  Budd  went  to  the 
Judges'  stand  and  objected  to  starting  the  Maid,  on  account 
of  the  weather.  The  judges  told  him  he  would  have  to 
start  her,  and  that  if  he  did  not  they  would  pick  out  some 
other  man  to  drive  her  for  him.  I  myself  felt  a  little 
shaky,  knowing  that  Rarus  was  a  very  poor  mud  horse, 
and  I  concluded  that  if  the  rain  continued  for  any  length 
of  time,  I  would  try  and  diaw  him,  and  in  that  way  get 
the  money  declared  off.  When  we  scored  for  the  first 
heat,  I  found  that  Rarus  could  easily  out-trot  the  Maid.  She 
had  the  pole,  and  I  concluded  to  trail  until  she  turned  into 
the  stretch.  We  went  to  the  first  three-quarters  of  the  mile 
in  that  way,  but  as  we  started  home  from  the  head  of  the 
stretch,  Rarus  threw  off  a  quarter-boot  and  made  a  wild 
break,  something  I  had  not  seen  him  do  in  six  months.  I 
merely  pulled  him  up,  and  made  no  further  move  for  the  heat, 
Budd  winning  in  a  jog.  Wlien  we  got  tLe  word  in  the 
second  heat  I  set  sail  to  make  the  Maid  go  from  start  to 
finish.  She  out-trotted  Earns  around  the  first  turn,  but  in 
going  down  the  back  stretch  I  got  Lead-and-head  with  her, 
keeping  very  close  to  her.  Budd  called  to  me  to  pull  out, 
saying  that,  if  the  Maid  made  a  break,  she  would  certainly 
go  into  the  fence.  I  did  not  pull  out,  simjjly  kept  my 
place,  and,  as  we  passed  tlie  half-mile  pole,  she  made  a  lunge 
and  a  break,  and  tore  off  one  of  her  quarter-boots,  cutting  her 
quarter.  All  this  I  saw  at  the  time,  as  she  was  nearly  as 
close  to  me  as  Rarus  was.  From  there  on,  Rarus  won 
easily,  his  time  being  2:19|^. 

This  was  the  first  mile  in  a  race  he  had  ever  gone  better 
than  2:20.  After  the  heat,  Budd  wanted  the  judges  to  let 
him  draw  the  mare  on  account  of  her  foot,  which  they  de- 
clined to  do,  and  Rarus  beat  her  the  two  next  heats,  without 
an  effort,  in  2:19|,  2:20.  After  the  finish  of  the  deciding  heat 
a  lot  of  i3eoi:)le  who  hud  bet  their  money  on  Goldsmith 
Maid,  thinking  they  had  a  sure  thing,  and  who  had  gone 


100  LIFE   WITH   THE  TEOTTERS. 

around  San  Francisco  all  winter  saying  tliat  I  did  not  dare 
to  beat  Goldsmith  Maid,  and  that  Budd  had  control  of  both 
horses  and  a  contract  on  Earns,  I  being  simply  driving 
for  him,  set  up  a  howl,  and  said  they  had  been  cheated  out 
of  theu'  money,  and  that  they  would  stand  no  such  nonsense. 
They  did  not  proi^ose  to  let  a  New  Yorker  come  over  there 
and  trick  them  in  that  way.  They  asked  the  judges  to  de- 
clare the  money  off,  and  at  one  time  it  looked  as  though 
they  would  accomplish  their  object.  The  judges,  however, 
after  a  fair  investigation,  concluded  that  the  race  had  been 
trotted  on  its  merits.  They  so  decided,  and  declared  that 
the  pools  must  follow  the  race.  A  good  many  peoi:)le  had 
over-played  themselves.  At  this  time  a  Californian  could 
siini^ly  put  his  word  in  the  pool-box,  and  it  was  a  number 
of  days  before  Mr.  Kenner  was  able  to  obtain  the  money 
that  was  won  on  the  race,  some  of  it  not  being  collected 
until  after  I  left  California  for  the  East  with  my  horse.  This 
race  probably  shook  up  San  Francisco  as  bad  as  anything 
since  the  last  i^revious  earthquake.  Of  course,  there  was  a 
tremendous  howl  in  the  papers,  and  I  think  the  reporters 
who  wrote  it  up  must  have  been  the  most  industrious  men 
in  the  world.  Up  to  then  they  had  always  treated  me  fairly 
well,  but  from  the  time  Earns  beat  Goldsmith  Maid  until 
the  first  edition  of  their  papers  came  out,  they  found  out 
more  mean  things  about  me  than  I  had  been  able  to  learn 
about  myself  in  a  lifetime.  They  did  not  blame  Mr.  Conk- 
lin  nor  anyone  except  myself.  They  seemed  to  think  that  I 
was  the  sole  promoter  of  the  "felony," '  as  they  were  pleased 
to  term  it.  A  good  many  of  Budd' s  friends  sympathized 
with  him,  and,  as  they  had  lost  their  money,  blamed  me,  for 
what  reason  I  could  never  see,  as  I  did  not,  I  am  sure,  com- 
IDel  them  to  bet  on  Goldsmith  Maid,  and  I  ahvays  supposed 
until  that  time  that  a  man  had  a  right  to  bet  on  his  own 
horse.  Budd,  naturally  enough,  felt  very  badly.  To  begin 
with,  he  loved  Goldsmith  Maid  as  no  other  man  ever  loved 
a  horse,  and  he  felt  as  I  or  any  other  man  of  sentiment 
would  at  seeing  the  favorite  animal  of  his  life  defeated.     I 


LIFE    WITH   THE  TKUTTEES.  101 

don' t  tliink  Budcl  ever  accused  me  of  treatino*  liini  dishonor- 
ably in  the  matter,  in  any  way,  shape,  or  manner. 

The  curious  feature  of  the  case  was,  that  the  result  of  this 
race  Avas  not  sent  East  by  telegraj)!!,  and  only  became  known 
there  when  the  California  papers  arrived.  I  shipped  for  the 
East  directly  after  the  race,  and  my  first  intimation  of  the 
storm  that  had  been  brewing  was  at  Chicago,  when  I  read  in 
the  Tribune  of  that  city  a  ferocious  attack  on  me  for  my 
X}art  in  the  affair,  it  being  intimated  that  I  had  robbed  the 
whole  State  of  California,  and  had  intentionally  worked  out 
the  Maid  the  day  before  the  race  in  such  a  manner  as  to 
deprive  her  of  any  chance  of  victory.  I  remember  very  well 
the  first  time  I  met  the  young  man  who  has  assisted  me  in 
the  prex:»aration  of  this  book.  It  was  at  Dexter  Park,  a  day 
or  so  after  I  arrived.  He  was  at  that  time  the  sporting- 
editor  of  the  Tribune,  and  we  had  never  come  together.  He 
was  fresh  from  an  interview  with  W.  H.  Crawford,  and  both 
of  them  were  pretty  hot  when  we  met  on  the  quarter  stretch. 
I  had  read  the  article  in  the  Tribune,  and,  not  being  as 
familiar  then  as  now  with  the  ways  of  newspapers  and 
editors,  and  having  looked  it  over  rather  hastily,  attributed 
to  Mr.  White  many  of  the  statements  that  were  really  made 
in  the  California  papers.  We  had  it,  hot  and  heavy,  for 
awhile,  but  finall}^  discovered  that  both  of  us  were  agreed 
as  to  many  facts,  and  from  that  incident  sprang  up  a  friend- 
shi^D  that  has  continued  without  interruption  ever  since.  It 
may  be  stated  here  that  Rarus  never  again  met  the  Maid, 
although  there  were  some  purses  offered  that  Mr.  Doble 
could  have  started  her  for  had  he  seen  fit.  As  a  matter  of 
fact,  she  never  started  again  against  any  horse,  but,  after 
giving  a  few  exhibitions  in  the  early  summer  of  1877,  v.as 
retired  from  the  turf,  and  put  to  breeding  at  the  Fashion 
Stud  Farm  of  Mr.  H.  N,  Smith,  who  had  owned  her  for 
many  years,  as  well  as  Lucy  and  Lady  Thorne,  two  other 
famous  mares  of  their  day. 

From  Chicago  I  shipy^ed  Rarus  to  Michigan,  and  started 
him  there  on  June  22,  1877,  in  a  free-to-all  purse,  his  op- 


102  LIFE   WITH   THE  TIIOTTERS. 

ponents  being  Cozette,  Little  Fred,  Slow  Go,  Lady  Maud, 
and  Nettie.  This  race  came  as  near  fnrnisliing  nie  a  dis- 
.agreable  surprise  as  any  in  wliicli  the  horse  had  ever  taken 
part.  After  bringing  Rarus  from  California,  I  had  indulged 
him  in  his  work,  thinking  that  I  would  not  strike  a  horse 
that  could  give  him  a  race.  I  had  made  up  my  mind  to  go 
easy  with  him  through  the  early  summer,  and  try  to  get  him 
on  edge  for  the  grond  circuit.  I  went  to  Grand  Rapids  with 
him  in  this  condition,  and  struck  there  what  was  as  good  a 
field  of  horses  as  ever  started  over  a  half-mile  track,  Cozette 
having  a  record  of  2:19,  Lady  Maud  one  of  2:18J,  Little  Fred 
2:20,  Slow  Go  2:18^  (made  not  long  after  that),  and  jSTettie 
could  beat  2:20  then,  and  eventually  made  a  record  of  2:18. 
I  concluded  to  lay  Rarus  up  the  first  heat,  and  let  the  others 
make  the  fight;  but  I  soon  found  that,  if  they  did  any  fight- 
ing, it  would  be  against  me.  Cozette  won  the  first  heat 
easily  in  2:21^.  When  the  word  was  given  in  the  second 
heat.  Slow  Go  interfered  with  Rarus  at  the  first  turn;  my 
horse  made  a  break,  and  I  did  no^  try  for  the  heat,  Cozette 
again  winning  in  2:21^,  two  wonderfully  good  heats  to  be 
trotted  over  a  half-mile  track.  This  convinced  me  that  if  I 
won  the  next  heat,  it  would  be  necessary  to  set  sail  from  the 
start,  and  this  I  did.  Cozette  and  Little  Fred  made  the  race 
with  me.  The  black  mare,  that  has  long  since  gone  from  the 
turf  and  been  put  to  breeding,  was  a  steady  trotter,  and 
Little  Fred  was  also  a  good  trotter,  as  well  as  the  best  run- 
ner I  ever  saw  in  harness.  Morrell  Higbie  was  a  little  over 
weight,  but  the  most  industrious  man,  with  that  sort  of 
a  horse,  that  had  ever  appeared  on  the  turf.  When  George 
Yoorhies,  who  drove  Cozette,  found  that  Rarus  was  beating 
his  mare,  he  pulled  up,  and  let  Higbie  see  what  he  could  do, 
and  the  result  was  that  Little  Fred  gave  me  a  hard  race  to 
the  wire,  Rarus  winning  by  aheadonh',  in  2:21f,  the  three 
heats  being  tlie  best  at  that  time,  and  I  think  ajD  to  date, 
ever  trotted  over  a  half-mile  track  by  a  field  of  horses.  In 
the  f  ourtli  heat  Yoorhies  again  laid  Cozette  up,  and  the  rest 
of  the  party  went  after  Rarus.     He  stalled  them  off,  how- 


LIFE    WITH   THE   TROTTERS.  103 

ever,  and  won  in  2:24|.  At  the  finish  of  this  lieat,  for  the 
first  time  in  his  life,  Rarus  showed  me  signs  of  distress, 
seeming  tired  in  his  legs  and  affected  in  his  wind,  and  I 
found  that  I  had  an  even  chance  of  getting  beaten.  Cozette 
had  two  heats  to  her  credit,  and  had  been  laid  up  a  part  of 
the  third  and  fourth,  and,  with  her  miles  in  2:21^  staring  me 
in  tlie  face,  I  thought  my  chances  were  not  very  rosy.  In 
thinking  the  matter  over,  I  concluded  to  let  some  one  else 
set  the  i3ace  in  the  deciding  mile,  and  try  and  win  with  my 
horse  at  the  finish,  a  plan  that  I  carried  out,  and,  with  the 
help  of  a  mistake  that  Cozette  made,  it  landed  me  the  win- 
ner in  2:23|.  The  five  heats  constituted  the  best  race  of  its 
length  ever  trotted  over  a  half-mile  track.  When  the  word 
was  given,  Cozette  took  the  lead,  Rarus  trailing  her,  and, 
after  we  had  gone  three  quai'ters  of  a  mile  in  these  joositions, 
there  was  about  two  leng;lis  of  daylight  between  us.  In 
going  around  the  upper  turn.  Earns  closed  the  gap,  so  that, 
when  swung  into  the  stretch,  his  head  was  at  the  mare's 
wheel.  From  there  to  the  drawgate,  it  was  as  desjperate  a 
race  as  one  could  wish  to  see.  At  that  point  Earns  com- 
menced to  tire,  and  the  mare  was  out- trotting  him.  For  the 
first  time  in  my  life  I  drew  the  whip  on  Earns.  He  responded 
to  the  blow  with  one  burst  of  speed,  moving  up  to  Cozette' s 
wheel,  when  she  made  a  slight  break,  and  lie  beat  her  to  the 
wire,  in  2:23f .  That  was  the  nearest,  with  perhaps  the  ex- 
cejDtion  of  one  other  race,  that  he  ever  came  to  being  beaten, 
after  he  began  to  win  with  me.  I  have  been  explicit  about 
this  race,  in  order  to  show  my  readers  what  condition  does 
for  a  horse  in  a  race.  Here  was  a  trotter  that,  when  in  proper 
fix,  had  shown  me  his  ability  to  trot  a  mile  in  2:14,  and  yet 
he  was  very  near  being  beaten  by  a  field  of  horses,  the  best 
of  whom.were  at  least  five  seconds  his  inferior;  and  at  the 
best  clip  that  Earns  could  show,  that  means  that  they  would 
be  more  than  a  distance  behind  him  at  the  finish  of  a  mile. 
If  the  i)ublic  would  make  a  little  study  of  this,  they  would 
be  able  to  understand  how  horses  often  lose  races,  and  men 
their  money,  and  then  think  they  have  not  had  a  fair  drive, 


104  LIFE    WITH    THE   TKOTTEES. 

when,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  tlie  condition  of  a  Lorse  has  all  to 
do  with  it. 

From  Grand  Rapids  we  went  to  Jackson,  another  half- 
mile  track,  where  Rarus  trotted  an  exhibition  mile  in  2:17, 
beating  by  a  full  second  Goldsmith  Maid's  best  time  over 
a  half-mile  track,  which  had  stood  unchallenged  for  years. 
This  proved  two  things  to  me — that  he  was  at  that  time  the 
fastest  horse  in  the  country,  and  that  the  five  corking  heats 
at  Grand  Rapids  had  kej^ed  him  up  to  his  best  form.  At 
Detroit,  Cozette  Avas  distanced  in  the  iirst  heat  of  our  race, 
which  Lady  Maud  won  in  2:21f .  Nettie  won  the  second 
heat  in  2:22^,  and  then  Rarus  took  the  next  three  in  2:22|^, 
2:25,  2:33^.  The  last  heat  shows  a  wonderful  falling  off  in 
time.  In  the  betting,  Rarus  was  the  favorite,  with  Cozette 
well  backed,  the  jieople  remembering  what  a  race  she  had 
given  Rarus  at  Grand  Rapids,  nnd  still  loath  to  believe  he 
was  the  great  horse  I  had  claimed  him  to  be.  The  others 
had  some  incidental  support  in  the  betting,  but  the  main 
money  was  on  Cozette  and  Rarus.  The  only  uneasiness  felt 
by  me  regarding  the  race  was  that  the  track  was  very  soft 
and  uneven.  I  decided  to  laj"  up  the  first  heat,  and  the 
result  proved  the  plan  a  good  one,  although  likely  enough 
I  could  have  won  in  straight  heats.  In  the  first  mile  Cozette 
made  a  wild  break  and  Lady  Maud  distanced  her.  With 
Cozette  out  of  the  fight  it  was  dollars  to  doughnuts  that 
Rarus  would  win.  I  knew  that  Turner  had  a  fair  mare  in 
Nettie,  and  as  the  General  was  rather  inclined  to  lie  around 
and  give  the  boys  a  surprise  party  now  and  then,  I  concluded 
to  keep  an  eye  open  and  see  what  the  little  man  from  Phil- 
adelphia was  uj)  to.  On  this  occasion,  however,  he  was  not 
dangerous,  as  after  Nettie  had  taken  the  second  heat  in 
2:22 J,  I  won  the  next  three  in  the  time  stated  above.  In 
the  last  heat  Nettie  and  SIoav  Go  came  together  at  the  first 
turn  as  the  result  of  a  double  break,  and  in  the  melee  Lady 
Maud  also  injured  her  stifle,  so  that  the  three  had  a  grand 
scramble  to  save  their  distance  in  the  slow  time  of  2:33^, 
This  race,  I  think,  was  the  last  in  which  Lady  Maud  ever 


LIFE    n'lTK   THE   TEOTTERS.  105 

started.  She' was  a  very  game  and  fast  little  mare,  and  but 
for  an  infirmity  in  her  feet  would  undoubtedly  have  been  a 
star  performer  and  materially  lowered  her  record  of  2: 18 J. 
After  the  finish  of  the  last  heat,  Capt.  John  DeMass,  a 
turf  celebrity,  and  who,  as  the  owner  of  tu^'s,  sailing  ves- 
sels, game  roosters,  and  trotting  and  running  horses,  has 
been  prominent  on  the  sporting  horizon  for  the  best  part  of 
half  a  century,  and  is  to  this  day  considered  the  best  assist- 
ant in  a  horse  race  of  any  man  on  the  turf,  called  me  to 
the  judges'  stand.  In  a  few  well-chosen  words  the  Captain 
presented  me  with  a  handsome  bouquet  that  he  said  had 
been  left  there  for  Rarus  by  a  lady,  who  had  forgotten 
to  say  whether  the  gift  was  on  account  of  the  fast  time 
or  the  slow  time  in  which  the  horse  had  gone,  a  remark 
that  seemed  to  me  a  very  proper  commentary  on  the  last 
heat. 

From  Detroit  w^e  shipped  to  Chicago  and  trotted  Rarus  a 
race  against  Nettie,  winning  it  with  the  best  mile  2: 28 J. 
At  Cleveland  we  struck  Lucille  Golddust,  Cozette,  and  Albe- 
marle, and  here  Rarus  made  another  great  improvement 
in  his  record,  trotting  the  three  heats  in  2:18i,  2:18,  2:18f, 
the  three  being  better  than  any  previous  mile  he  had  trotted 
in  a  race.  At  Buffalo,  the  next  week  the  same  horses 
started  again,  but  the.  best  mile  that  Lucille  could  make 
Rarus  go  was  the.,  third,  2:19|.  Two  days  later  I  started 
him  against  Lucille  and  Nettie  in  a  free-to-all  race,  the  first 
event  having  been  for  horses  of  the  2:20  class,  and  this  time 
Green  s  mare  made  him  go  the  second  mile  in  2:18.  Then 
we  went  to  Rochester,  where  Rarus  trotted-  a  wonderfully 
good  race,  and  before  alluding  to  that  in  detail,  I  will  tell 
something  of  the  manner  in  which  I  worked  him  while  he 
was  making  this  remarkable  increase  in  speed.  I  gave  him 
nothing  in  the  way  of  training  except  very  light  jogging, 
with  easy  miles  between  2:30  and  2:25,  but  at  the  end  of 
every  mile  I  would  brush  him  a  hundred  yards  or  so  as  fast 
as  he  could  go.  I  red  need  the  number  of  miles  in  his  work 
but  kej)t  giving  it  to  him  oftener — that  is  to  say,  I  would 


106  LIFE   WITH   THE   TROTTERS. 

brush  him  a  ways  every  other  day,  and  found  a  decided  in- 
crease in  his  speed.  Tliere  was  no  fear"in  mj'  mind  as  to  his 
staying  qualities,  as  it  did  not  seem  to  me  i^ossible  for  him  to 
have  any  more  speed  than  he  had  the  stamina  to  carry.  I 
had  also  by  this  time  learned  another  thing,  which  was, 
that  when  the  tracks  were  not  too  hard  he  went  better  with 
about  ten  or-eleven  ounces  on  his  forward  feet  than  he  did 
with  more  weight,  and  I  shod  him  accordingly.  When 
Ave  reached  Rochester  it  was  apparent  that  Mr.  Green  and 
his  friends  were  very  sweet  on  Lucille' s  chances,  she  being 
a  mare  that  had  always  improved  in  her  campaigns,  and  as 
Cleveland  was  the  first  race  of  the  season  for  her,  and  she 
had  gone  well,  they  believed  she  had  a  chance  to  beat  E-arus 
before  the  circuit  was  ended.  Some  people  said  that  he 
had  been  screwed  uj)  in  California  all  winter;  that  the  length 
of  the  campaign  had  begun  to  tell  on  him,  and  that  he 
would  train  off.  Whoever  thought  this  made  a  great  mis- 
take. Rarus  had  not  been  keyed  up  in  California,  and 
with  the  exception  of  the  Grand  Rapids  race  had  never 
been  pinched  at  all.  In  the  first  heat  of  the  Rochester 
race  Green  drove  his  mare  from  start  to  finish,  but  while 
the  contest  was  close  there  was  no  XDlace  in  it  where  Rarus 
was  extended.  The  time  was  2:17^,  the  best  mile  Rarus  had 
ever  trotted  in  a  race.  I  had  heard  a  great  many  people  say 
that  Rarus  was  not  a  game  horse,  and  that  if  he  were  taken 
by  the  neck  he  would  stop.  I  felt,  however,  a  good  deal 
like  the  man  that  had  a  quarter-horse,  and  who  was  told 
that  the  first  horse  that  took  his  animal  by  the  head  would 
beat  him,  j^ut  the  old  man  only  smiled  sort  of  sadly,  and 
replied  that  it  might  be  so,  he  didn'  t  know,  but  the  trouble 
was  to  find  a  horse  that  could  get  to  his  nag's  head.  In  the 
second  heat,  Green  made  a  desiderate  drive  to  the  distance 
stand,  where,  feeling  that  he  had  no  chance  to  win,  he 
stopped.  When  I  saw  this  and  eased  Rarus,  Green  made 
another  rush  with  his  mare,  and  at  the  finish  it  looked  to 
outsiders  as  though  he  came  very  near  winning  the  heat, 
which  was  again  in  2:17^.     As  we  walked  to  the  cooling- 


LIFE    WITH     rilK    TUOTTEKS.  107 

gTouiids  al'ter  this  heat  I  overlieatl  Col.  John  W.  Coiiley,  a 
shrewd  judge  of  horses  and  horse-racing,  say  to  Ureeu: 
"  You  have  got  him  now;  you'll  beat  him  sure.  He  stopped 
at  the  finish  of  that  heat."  From  Green's  manner  I  judged 
that  he  was  of  the  same  opinion,  but  they  were  wrong.  I 
alwa3\s  formed  my  idea  of  what  Rarus  wouhl  do  from  the 
manner  in  which  he  cooled  out  after  a,  heat.  lie  had  just 
gone  the  best  two  ndles  of  his  life,  and  it  would  not  have 
surprised  me  had  he  shown  some  distress,  but,  as  Barne}" 
Stanford  remarked,  he  never  drew  a  long  breath  after  either 
heat.  I  thought,  from  what  I  Ivnew  of  the  horse,  that  if  Lu- 
cille beat  him  the  next  heat  he  would  see  a  mark  on  the  black- 
board that  had  never  been  there  before.  When  they  came 
to  trot  the  heat  I  don't  think  Green  was  much  to  blame 
for  the  confidence  he  had  in  his  mare,  as  she  trotted 
outside  of  Rarus  every  step  of  the  mile  and  then  forced 
him  to  the  wire  in  2:16 — a  third  heat  which,  even  in 
these  days  when  a  two-year-old  trots  in  2:18,  is  not  to  be 
sneezed  at. 

At  Utica,Rarus  beat  Lucille  Gokldust  and  Great  Eastern, 
in  the  order  named,  the  third  heat,  the  fastest  of  the  race, 
being  2:17;  and  seven  days  later,  at  Hartford,  we  started 
him  against  Hopeful,  Nettie,  and  Great  Eastern.  Hopeful 
won  the  second  heat  of  this  race  in  2:19,  Rarus  having  taken 
the  first  in  2:21,  and  winning  the  third  and  fourth  in  2:19|^, 
2:22.  Then  a  special  race  for  these  three  horses  was  ar- 
ranged to  be  trotted  two  weeks  later  over  the  running  track 
at  Long  Branch,  and  this  event  my  horse  also  won,  the  best 
mile  being  2:22|.  By  this  time  Rarus  was  the  lecognized 
star  of  the  trotting  turf,  Goldsnnth  Maid  with  her  faster 
record  than  his  having  been  retired,  and  it  was  a  little  difR- 
(^ult  to  get  engagements  for  him  in  ordinary  class  races. 
Charlie  Green  had  been  \vorking  Great  Eastern  under  the 
saddle,  and  the  Fleetwood  Park  people  offered  a  purse  for 
Great  Eastern  to  go  that  wa}'  against  Rarus  in  harness. 
This  ^proposition  was  accepted.  As  this  was  a  remarkable 
race  in  more  respects  than  one,  and  as  in  it  the  Great  East- 


108  LIFE   WITH   THE   TROTTERS. 

ern  made  his  saddle  record  of  2:ir)|,  which  is  still  the 
best  at  that  way  of  going,  I  shall  tell  about  it  in  detail .  In 
the  tirst  place,  it  furnishes  another  instance  of  the  uncertain- 
ties of  horse  racing.  To  X)ut  it  plainly,  the  condition  of  the 
Fleetwood  track  at  that  time  was  villainous.  Of  course, 
Rarus  was  a  tremendous  favorite  for  the  race,  and  so  we 
started.  In  the  first  heat  Great  Eastern  caught  his  boot 
right  after  getting  the  word,  and  Green  had  to  pull  him  to 
a  standstill,  while  I  jogged  Rarus  the  mile  in  2:33,  and  had 
I  gone  in  2:30,  which  I  w^as  afterward  very  sorry  for  not 
doing,  I  would  have  distanced  him.  My  reasons  for  letting 
Great  Eastern  inside  the  flag  were  that  a  good  many  people 
had  come  to  see  this  special  race,  and  feeling  sure  that  my 
horse  would  win  in  three  heats  I  wanted  to  let  the  folks 
have  something  for  their  money.  How  near  I  came  to  being 
entirely  mistaken  the  result  of  the  race  will  show.  In  the 
second  heat  Green  went  away  with  the  lead  and  I  trailed 
until  we  turned  into  the  stretch.  In  a  driving  finish  Great 
Eastern  beat  Rarus  in  2:18.  Tliis  taught  me  that  I  w^ould 
have  to  follow  a  different  plan  in  the  next  heat,  and  I  con- 
cluded to  set  sail  from  the  start,  having  the  fullest  confi- 
dence in  the  ability  of  Rarus  to  stay,  and  thinking  that  in 
that  manner  I  would  force  Green' s  horse  to  surrender.  Down 
to  the  half-mile  pole  Great  Eastern  led  all  the  way  in  the 
the  third  heat,  having  got  the  best  of  the  start.  From  there 
to  the  three-quarter  pole  he  increased  his  lead  at  least  an- 
other length.  As  we  rounded  into  the  stretch  Rarus  began  to 
close  on  him  and  had  got  to  his  saddle  skirts  at  the  distance 
stand.  From  there  to  the  wire  Great  Eastern  beat  him  out 
in  what  is  to  this  day  the  best  saddle  record,  2:li5|.  Had 
the  race  been  over  a  track  prepared  like  that  at  Cleveland 
or  Hartford  I  am  certain  that  this  mile  would  have  been  as 
good  if  not  better  than  2:13,  and  in  this  opinion  I  have  often 
heard  Mr.  Green  concur. 

At  this  point  in  the  race  the  betting  changed,  and  there 
was  one  grand  rush  to  hedge.  I  made  up  my  mind  that  if 
Great  Eastern  kept  going  that  kind  of  a  clip  he  would  cer- 


LIFE   WITH   THE   TIlOTTEKS.  109 

tainly  win.  Still,  I  could  liardly  believe  that  Rarus,  a  liorse 
that  had  gone  to  California  and  back,  beating  everything 
that  he  had  started  against,  was  to  meet  his  Waterloo.  Both 
horses  showed  distress  after  the  third  heat,  and  when  we 
went  away  in  the  fourth  the  clii)  was  not  as  fast  as  it  had 
been.  Great  Eastern  led  all  the  way  to  the  head  of  the 
home  stretch,  and  from  thereto  the  stand  we  had  a  desperate 
race,  I  was  very  busy  watching  and  driving  my  own  horse 
and  could  not  see  what  Green  was  doing,  but  was  told  after- 
ward, by  men  who  are  good  Judges,  that  he  rode  his  horse 
as  skillful  a  finish  as  was  ever  seen.  At  the  last  stride 
Rarus  got  his  head  on  even  terms  with  Eastern,  and  as  they 
went  under  the  wire  I  could  not  tell  which  had  won.  The 
judges  at  once  decided  that  it  was  a  dead  heat,  which  I 
think  was  correct,  as  all  the  betting  men  seemed  satisfied. 
This  mile  w^as  in  2:18|,  a  pretty  good  clip  to  be  going  in  a 
fourth  heat  over  such  a  poor  track.  We  had  now  gone  four 
miles,  three  of  them  having  been  fighting  ones.  Neither 
horse  seemed  to  have  much  advantage  over  the  other  in 
speed,  the  fact  of  Rarus  going  in  harness  putting  Great 
Eastern  on  even  terms  with  him  in  that  respect.  I  had  often 
heard  running-horse  men  talk  of  liandicapj)ing  two  horses 
so  that  they  w^ould  run  to  a  head-and-head  finish,  and  after 
this  race  with  Great  Eastern  could  see  how  it  might  be  done. 
One  thing  I  believed  about  Rarus  was,  that  he  was  game  to 
the  core.  I  had  never  seen  Great  Eastern  tried  in  that  sort 
of  a  battle,  and,  as  a  rule,  turfites  always  doubt  the  game- 
ness  of  a  horse  until  they  see  him  thoroughly  tested.  That, 
I  think,  arises  from  the  fact  that  so  few  horses  prove  them- 
selves fully  game  when  tried  by  the  fire  of  a  long  race  in 
which  every  heat  is  gone  at  top  speed.  In  the  fifth  heat 
Eastern  again  went  off  with  the  lead,  out  trotted  Rarus  to 
the  half-mile  jDole,  and  from  there  to  within  twenty-five 
yards  of  the  wire  we  went  like  a  double  team.  At  the  j)oint 
named  the  big  horse  faltered,  and  Rarus  beat  him  to  the 
wire  by  a  length  in  2:21.  After  this  heat  Great  Eastern 
looked  as  though  he  was  through.      Rarus  was  somewhat 


110  LIFE    WITH    THE   TKOTTEKS. 

distressed,  but  not  euougli  to  cause  me  any  alarm,  and  I  felt 
confident  that,  barring  accident,  we  liiid  the  race  in  hand. 
Again  there  was  a  flop  in  the  betting.  Rarus  bringing  $100 
to  $10,  Mdth  little  demand  for  tlie  short  end.  In  the  sixth 
and  deciding  heat  Great  Eastern  still  had  some  speed, 
and  led  to  the  half  in  about  1:10,  l)nt  then  gave  it  u]), 
and  Rarus  beat  him  in  the  easiest  kind  of  a  jog  in  ^2:'27^, 
this  ending  what  was  considered  by  those  who  saw 
it  one  of  the  best  races,  from  the  standpoint  of  peed 
and  endurance,  ever  contested  on  the  American  trotting- 
turf. 

On  September  28,  Rarus  beat  Hopeful  a  race  at  Fleetwood 
Park  in  straight  heats,  the  fastest  mile  being  the  second, 
wdiich  was  done  in  2:16^,  the  best  ever  made  up  to  that  time 
over  the  track.  Then  we  entered  in  a  special  race  with  Great 
Eastern  and  Hoj^eful,  at  Cleveland,  Great  Eastern  under 
saddle,  and  the  others  in  harness.  The  race  occurred  October 
5,  Great  Eastern  winning  the  first  two  heats  in  2:19|,  2:17|, 
after  which  Rarus  took  the  next  three  in  2:21|^,  2:21,  2:22. 
From  there  Great  Eastern  and  Rarus  went  to  Columbus, 
Ohio,  and  October  11,  Rarus  beat  the  saddler  in  straight 
heats,  the  best  mile  being  2:17^.  Five  days  later  we  trotted 
over  a  half-mile  track  at  Cincinnati,  Great  Eastern  winning 
the  first  heat,  after  which  Rarus  ^von,  his  best  mile  being 
2:18,  the  best,  up  to  that  time,  ever  trotted  over  a  half-mile 
track  in  a  race  against  other  horses.  This  was  the  last  time 
Rarus  trotted  that  year.  Beginning  on  May  26,  at  San 
Francisco,  when  lie  beat  Goldsmith  Maid,  he  had  journeyed 
from  the  Pacific  to  the  Atlantic,  and  started  in  no  less  than 
fifteen  races,  all  of  them  against  fields  of  crack  horses,  the 
best  in  the  land,  and  in  no  instance  had  he  met  with  defeat, 
although  in  his  contests  Avith  Great  Eastern  he  was  handi- 
capped by  being  obliged  to  pull  a  sulky,  while  the  other 
horse  went  under  saddle.  During  this  time  he  reduced  his 
record  from  2:20  to  2:16,  and  made  the  best  record,  both  in 
exhibitions  and  in  a.  race,  over  a  half-mile  track.  These 
statistics  show  wliat  a   wonderful  horse    Rarus  was,  even 


LIFE    WITH   THE   TROTTERS.  Ill 

then,  and,  in  another  chapter,  I  shall  tell  of  his  exploits  in 
1878,  when  he  set  a  mark  for  every  trotter  in  the  world  to 
shoot  at,  showed  himself  the  fastest,  most  reliable,  and 
gamest  trotter  that  had,  up  to  that  time,  ever  looked  through 
a  bridle. 


CHAPTER  y. 

How  Rarus  was  wintered  at  Cleveland — Barred  from  the  free-to-all  races  in  the 
summer  of  1878 — He  trots  in  2:14  at  Cleveland — Uncle  Ben  Wright's 
unlucky  bets — The  record  lowered  to  2:1335^  at  Buffalo — A  great  race  at 
Hartford — Gus  Glidden  and  Edwin  Forrest — Trouble  at  Minneapolis,  and 
a  great  wagon  performance  at  Chicago — Another  trip  to  California — An 
accident  in  the  stable,  and  what  the  veterinary  said — Trotting  in  2:133^  to 
save  ^Ir.  Conkliu's  $10 — The  sale  to  Mr.  Robert  Bonner,  etc. 

The  trotting  season  was  now  over,  and  after  consultation 
with  Mr.  Conklin,  1  decided  to  winter  the  horse  on  this 
side  of  the  Rockies.  After  looking  for  an  eligible  place,  I 
concluded  to. try  Cleveland,  so  Rarus  was  sent  to  the  track 
there,  winter  quarters  being  arranged  in  the  shape  of  an 
extra  large  stall.  His  shoes  were  taken  off,  his  feed 
reduced,  and  some  light  medicines  for  the  stomach  and 
blood  given.  The  only  exercise  at  first  indulged  in  was 
plenty  of  walking.  Had  I  not  been  afraid  that  he  would 
hurt  himself  in  play,  it  would  have  suited  me  better  to  have 
turned  him  out  in  a  large  paddock  for  awhile  every  day 
when  the  weather  Avas  fine,  but  this  I  did  not  dare  to  do,  and 
so  a  walk  night  and  morning  was  the  next  best  thing.  This 
routine  was  kept  up  until  about  the  first  of  January,  by 
which  time  he  had  ])\\t  on  an  even  coat  of  flesh,  and  seemed 
entirely  recovered  from  the  natural  wear  and  tear  of  a  long- 
campaign.  There  was  plenty  of  snow  on  the  ground  when 
we  first  harnessed  Rarus,  and  I  began  driving  him  slowh^ 
two  or  three  miles  evei^y  day  barefoot,  giving  him  regular 
walking  exercise  in  addition.  The  jogging  was  gradually 
increased,  and  his  feed  in  the  same  ratio,  so  that  before  the 
snow  was  off  the  ground,  I  was  driving  him  six  or  eight 
miles  a  day.    This  was  my  own  personal  work,  as  I  never 

\n2) 


LIFE    WLTII   THE   TKOTTEKS.  113 

allowed  anybody  else  to  jog  or  drive  this  horse.  There  was 
nothing  unkind  about  Rarus,  or  any  disj)osition  to  be  ugly, 
but  he  was  about  the  best  feeling  horse  I  ever  saw,  and 
would  in  i3lay  do  things  that  nught  have  caused  accidents 
with  an  inexperienced  man  having  hold  of  the  reins,  I 
remember  that  one  day  during  the  winter  I  took  Dave 
Hosmer,  the  driver  of  Abdallah  Boy  and  other  trotters,  out 
to  ride  with  me.  Rarus  saw  something  in  the  road,  and 
made  a  dart  to  one  side  so  suddenly  that  he  landed  Dave 
high  and  dry  in  a  snow  bank.  When  Hosmer  picked  him- 
self up,  he  said  he  did  not  wonder  at  that  horse  trotting  in 
2:14  after  the  move  he  had  just  made.  I  had  a  rule  with 
the  boys  that  whenever  we  went  to  hitch  or  unhitch  Rarus, 
one  of  them  should  always  take  him  by  the  head,  and  the 
other  one  unhook  one  side  of  tlie  harness,  while  I  looked 
after  the  other.  One  day  I  drove  him  into  the  yard  on  re- 
turning from  exercise,  and  found  Mr.  Crawford  and  some 
friends  of  mine  there.  I  sat  in  the  wagon  chatting  with 
them  while  waiting  for  the  boys  to  come  out  of  the  stall. 
Only  one  boy  ax^peared,  and  he  started  to  unhitch  Rarus. 
I  said  to  take  the  horse  by  the  head  and  wait  for  the  other 
boy,  which  he  did.  At  this  moment,  something  j)assed 
through  the  yard  that  Rarus  noticed,  and  he  at  once  made 
a  dart,  and  tried  to  bolt.  I  had  hold  of  the  reins,  and  the 
boy  had  him  by  the  head.  I  have  often  seen  children  play 
"  crack  the  whip  "  at  school,  but  it  was  not  a  circumstance 
to  tlie  wa}^  Rarus  dashed  the  groom  and  myself  about  that 
yard.  Fortunately,  he  did  not  hurt  himself,  or  get  away. 
I  never  saw  another  horse  that  could  make  such  lightning- 
like moves. 

In  the  spring,  when  the  snow  left  the  ground,  I  hitched 
Rarus  in  double  harness  with  Calmar  and  gave  him  all  his  ex- 
ercise in  that  manner,  thinking  it  safer  than  to  drive  him  sin- 
gle. The  season  was  a  late  one,  and  I  did  not  get  to  do  much 
on  the  track  before  the  first  of  May.  Having  no  engagements 
for  Rarus  1  began  very  moderately,  working  him  to  a  skel- 
eton wagon,  and  gave  him  a  great   man}'  miles  in  from 


114  LIFE    uITir    THE   TKOTTEII.S. 

2:50  to  3:00,  sometimes  as  many  as  a  half  a  dozen  in  a 
day,  Avith  twenty  minutes  rest  between  tliem.  There  was 
no  attempt  to  drive  at  a  high  rate  of  speed,  but  after  the 
weatlier  became  settled,  I  gradually  improved  his  speed  in 
the  work,  at  the  same  time  shortening  the  distance.  About 
May  15,  I  made  an  engagement  to  show  Rarus  at  Pitts- 
burg two  weeks  later,  stij)ulating,  however,  that  I  should 
not  be  expected  to  drive  him  better  than  about  2:21.  I  gave 
him  a  few  moderate  miles  between  2:30  and  2:25,  brushing 
only  at  the  finish  of  each  mile.  His  best  performance  was 
2: 24 J,  and  in  it  he  showed  me  that  he  had  plenty  of  speed, 
so  I  had  no  fear  but  that  he  would  be  able  to  fulfill  the 
Pittsbuig  contract,  Avhicli  he  did  easily  enough.  The  track 
there  was  a  half-mile  one  with  a  good  deal  of  grade  in  it, 
the  first  quarter  being  doAAaihill  and  the  last  quarter  uphill. 
Here  I  found  the  same  trouble  to  exist  that  I  had  noticed 
at  Fleetwood  the  j^revious  year.  With  his  light  shoes 
Earns  could  not  get  down  the  hill  well,  and  this  caused  me 
to  at  once  shoe  him  heavier  in  front.  On  the  da}'  of  the  ex- 
hibition he  went  the  second  heat  in  2:21^,  which  was  by 
long  odds  the  best  performance  that  had  been  made  over 
the  track.  On  the  12th  of  June  we  were  at  Jackson,  Mich., 
again,  trotting  the  third  mile  in  2:20f,  with  the  track  deep 
and  slow  from  recent  rains.  Up  to  this  time  I  had  not 
done  much  with  Rarus,  as  the  stewards  of  the  grand  circuit 
had  seen  fit  to  bar  him  in  the  free-to-all  race  at  their  meet- 
ings, something  never  heard  of  before — barring  a  horse  in  a 
free- to-all  class  before  he  had  ever  trotted  there  through  the 
circuit.  Several  parties  approached  me  Avitli  a  x)roposition 
to  show  Rarus  against  some  i)acers,  but  I  told  them  no; 
that  if  they  had  a  j)acer  capable  of  beating  him  to  get  him 
ready  and  come  on  with  their  money.  The  circuit  people 
made  me  what  I  considered  one-sided  loropositions  to  show 
him  over  the  different  tracks,  but  to  all  these  I  said  no. 
Tlien  they  Avanted  to  know  what  I  Avas  going  to  do  Avith 
him,  pointing  out  that  the  horse  was  barred  in  the  free-to- 
all  class,   and  Avithout  record  Ioav  enough  to  make  him  a 


LIFE    AViril    THE   TKOTTEKS.  llo 

star  performer.  I  replied  that  if  necessary  I  would  get  the 
record  all  right.  After  talking  with  Mr.  Conklin,  I  de- 
cided that  the  tirst  thing  was  to  do  this,  and  ^vith  that  end 
in  view,  the  rest  of  my  stable  being  entered  at  Saginaw,  1 
took  Rarus  there,  hoj^ing  to  find  the  track  and  day  favorable 
to  fast  time.  On  the  .contrary,  I  found  the  track  worn  out, 
and  the  prospects  anything  but  rosy,  which  decided  me  to 
give  Rarus  only  safe  work,  waiting  for  a  better  opi^ortunity 
to  smash  the  record.  There  was  an  exhibition  by  Rarus,  and 
in  this  he  showed  me  the  three  best  consecutive  heats  he 
had  ever  trotted,  the  miles  being  2:17^,  2:16,  2:16^.  In  this 
exhibition,  for  the  reasons  stated,  I  did  not  pinch  Rarus,  sim- 
ply letting  him  go  three  good  rating  heats.  From  Saginaw  w^e 
went  to  Cincinnati,  and  gave  an  exhibition  on  the  Fourth 
of  July,  the  second  mile  being  done  in  2:17  over  a  half- 
mile  track.  It  had  rained  the  previous  night,  which  slowed 
the  track  some,  but  I  had  never  seen  Rarus  when  I  liked 
him  as  well.  Toledo  was  the  next  i)lace  on  the  route,  and 
here  Rarus  tried  to  beat  his  own  half-mile  track  record  of 
2:17.  I  was  sure  he  would  do  it.  AVliile  the  track  was  far 
from  fast  it  seemed  safe  and  the  horse  moved  like  a  bird. 
Up  to  this  time  I  had  given  him  only  moderate  work  and 
no  fast  miles,  simply  sending  him  along  in  about  2:2o, 
l)rushing  him  the  last  loO  yards  as  well  as  he  could  go.  M}' 
aim  still  was  to  make  with  him  all  the  speed  possible,  and 
I  trained  him  as  yon  would  have  handled  a  sprint  runner. 
When  we  came  out  at  Toledo,  Rarus  went  two  trials  in  2:19, 
2 : 1 7J.  Darkness  coming  on,  the  exhibition  was  postponed  un- 
til  the  following  day,  when  Rarus  trotted  in  2:10,  beating  his 
own  record  a  full  second,  and  that  of  every  other  horse  two 
seconds,  so  far  as  performances  over  half-mile  tracks  were 
concerned. 

The  great  summer  meeting  at  Cleveland  was  now  at  hand, 
and  we  went  there  to  trot  an  exhibition,  the  terms  being 
that  Rarus  was  to  go  three  heats  that  should  average  better 
than  2:18;  and  if  Goldsmith  Maid's  recoid  was  beaten,  we 
were  to  get  an  additional  $500.     In  this  race,  I  not  only 


116  LIFE    WITH    THE   TKOTTEKS. 

tried  to  win  the  luouey,  but  also  to  make  the  best  showing 
I  possibly  could,  knowing  that  if  he  went  well  there  would 
be  no  trouble  in  making  all  the  engagements  I  wished  for 
the  rest  of  the  season.  Had  this  Cleveland  exhibition  taken 
place  on  the  day  it  was  first  advertised  to  form  part  of  the 
programme,  I  am  sure  that  Rarus  would  have  gone  the 
three  heats  in  2:14,  or  better,  but  from  the  effects  of  a  big 
gale  and  rainstorm  the  track  was  so  bad  that  the  race  was 
postponed,  and  did  not  come  off  until  the  next  day,  which 
was  the  last  of  the  meeting,  and  the  last  of  the  week,  and 
then  not  until  very  late  in  the  afternoon.  I  was  very  busy 
that  day  driving  two  other  races,  and  did  not  have  the  time 
in  which  to  give  proper  attention  to  Rarus.  I  will  describe 
the  race,  and  tell  how  near  an  intimate  friend  of  mine  came 
to  losing  a  good  bundle  of  money  on  the  result.  At  this 
meeting  Hopeful  had  gone  thvee  heats  against  Proteine, 
which  were  the  three  fastest  consecutive  heats  ever  trotted, 
the  time  being,  2:17^,  2:15|,  2:15^.  An  admirer  of  Hope- 
ful came  across  my  friend,  and  bet  him  $500  that  Rarus 
would  not  in  his  exhibition  trot  three  heats  to  average  as 
good  as  lloi^ef ur  s  three.  I  told  my  friend  that  that  money 
was  won;  that  the  trotting  horse  never  lived  that  could 
make  a  performance  that  Rarus  could  not  beat.  In  the  bet- 
ting on  the  race,  it  was  $100  to  $50  that  Rarus  would  trot 
three  heats  to  average  better  than  2: 18;  it  was  $100  to  $20  that 
he  would  not  beat  2:14.  My  friend  said  to  me,  "  I  am  going 
to  bet  a  couple  of  thousand  dollars  that  he  don't  beat  2:14, 
and  at  that  odds  I  Avill  win  about  $3,500  or  $4,000."  I  told 
him  not  to  do  it,  as  I  thought  Rarus  had  a  chance  of  beat- 
ing 2:14,  and  that  I  should  certainly  drive  him  as  fast  as  I 
could.  Anyhow,  he  bet  $2,000  that  Rarus  would  not  beat 
2:14.  Rarus  went  the  first  mile  in  2:14|-,  and  the  second  in 
2:15,  after  which  my  friend  said  to  me  that  he  was  very 
glad  he  had  bet  his  money  as  he  had,  for  that,  after  going 
the  first  mile  in  2:1 4|^,  and  the  second  in  2:15,  if  he  })eat 
2:14  his  opponent  couhl  have  the  money  and  welcome.  In 
tlie  third  heat,   I  had  a  runner  to  go  with  him,  and  when 


LIFE    WITH    THE   TROTTERS.  117 

the  jiidges  said  ''go,"  Rurus  went  away  from  the  wire  as 
though  he  intended  to  trot  a  mile  in  two  m mutes.  At  the 
quarter  pole,  the  old  runner  took  to  the  bushes  and  bolted. 
As  soon  as  his  company  was  gone,  Rarus  wanted  to  slack 
up;  I  kept  him  steady,  however,  and  when  we  turned  into 
the  home  stretch,  I  found  waiting  for  me  on  his  celebrated 
gray  horse,  that  noted  character,  William  Potts,  at  that 
time  marshal  of  the  Cleveland  track.  I  called  to  him  to  come 
on  with  his  horse,  but  Potts  did  not  get  the  gray  going  quick 
enough,  and  was  unable  to  reach  me.  When  I  went  under 
the  wire,  I  guessed  that  something  unusual  had  happened, 
as  I  never  heard  such  cheering  before  in  my  life.  When  I 
got  back  to  the  stand,  the  iirst  man  I  happened  to  meet  was 
my  friend  who  liad  bet  his  two  thousand  dollars.  He  says 
to  me,  with  a  peculiar  look  on  his  face,  "We  are  murdered; 
you  went  the  mile  in  2:13| ! ''  The  time  that  the  outsiders, 
I  found,  had  made  it  to  a  man.  In  the  judges'  stand  there 
was  a  disagreement,  two  watches  making  it  2:14,  and  one 
2:13|.  They  hung  it  out  2:14,  and  my  friend  won  his 
money;  but  he  told  me  quietly,  that  night,  that  he  would 
never  bet  that  much  again  that  Rarus  would  not  trot  in 
2:14,  whenever  I  was  willing  to  try  with  him.  Tliis  race 
not  only  proved  that  Rarus  was  the  sujDerior  of  every 
horse  then  on  the  turf,  but  that  he  had,  in  one  race, 
equaled  the  best  record  of  Goldsmith  Maid,  and  gone 
three  of  the  fastest  consecutive  heats  ever  trotted  or  paced 
by  any  horse,  and  everyone  who  saw  him  make  the  per- 
formance felt  sure  that  he  could  beat  2:14. 

The  following  week  we  went  to  Buffalo,  and  under  a  special 
arrangement  were  billed  to  try  and  beat  2: 14,  and  here  I  want 
say  that  I  made  a  very  serious  mistake  in  the  start.  Rarus 
was  a  horse  that  had  always  gone  with  a  very  light  shoe, 
and  I  knew  could  always  go  better  over  a  track  not  too  hard, 
but,  as  I  suppose  many  a  man  has  done  before,  I  allowed 
myself  to  be  advised  as  to  the  condition  of  the  track,  and 
the  superintendent  had  it  made  harder  than  I  had  ever  seen 
it.     The  soil  of  the  Buffalo  track  at  this  time  "was  just  lit  for 


118  LIFE   WITH    THE   TROTTEKS. 

making  bricks,  and  with  a  little  water  and  straw  the  track 
woukl  have  been  as  hard  as  a  brick.  The  superintendent 
being  anxious  to  liave  the  record  beaten  over  that  track  did 
only  what  he  thought  was  best,  but  I  was  sure  at  the  time, 
and  am  more  positive  now,  that  Rarus,  or,  in  fact,  any  other 
horse,  can  go  better  over  a  track  not  quite  as  hard.  I  had 
done  but  very  little  with  him  in  the  way  of  work,  being 
satisfied  that  the  three  heats  he  had  gone  at  Cleveland  would 
give  him  all  the  i)reparation  he  would  need.  There  was  a 
good  deal  of  betting  on  the  event,  a  wonderful  crowd  of 
people,  and  great  .enthusiasm.  In  the  auction  pools  the 
betting  was  on  the  result  of  the  three  trials  that  he  was 
to  have.  In  the  French  the  betting  was  all  on  the  result 
of  the  different  heats,  and  the  odds  were  about  $1 00  to  §60 
that  time  would  win.  In  the  first  heat  I  simply  drove  Rarus 
a  good  stiff  mile  in  2:17|^.  Of  course,  in  the  second  heat 
everyone  expected,  as  I  did  myself,  to  make  the  grand  trial. 
My  friend,  Uncle  Ben  Wright,  whom  everybody,  from  the 
ticket  taker  to  the  president  of  the  track,  knows  on  every 
race  track  from  Boston  to  Australia,  came  and  asked  me 
what  I  thought  of  the  heat.  I  told  him  I  thought  Rarus 
had  a  chance  to  beat  2:14,  and  said  to  him  that  if  I  made  a 
mistake  in  getting  off  I  certainly  should  lay  him  up,  sup- 
posing, of  course,  that  he  was  going  to  bet  his  money  in  the 
auction  on  the  result  of  the  race.  Instead  of  that  he  walked 
over  to  the  French  and  played  his  money  there,  which  went 
on  the  decision  of  that  heat.  When  I  commenced  to  score 
Rarus  for  the  heat,  and  he  extended  himself  as  a  horse 
would  going  at  a  2:14  gait,  the  track  hurt  him,  and  he  broke 
several  times — something  entirely  new  with  him.  Every- 
body had  a  different  reason  for  this  unsteadiness,  but  I  was 
positive  at  the  time  it  was  the  track,  and  now  I  knowit  was. 
We  finally  got  the  word,  but  he  had  not  gone  far  before  he 
made  a  wild  break,  and  I  simply  jogged  him  the  mile  in 
2:50.  In  the  meantime,  Uncle  Ben,  seeing  Rarus  acting  badly 
in  scoring  for  the  heat,  thought  he  would  make  a  hedging 
bet  and  went  to  the  auction  pools  and  played  his  money 


LIFE    WITH    TFIE   TKOTTKRS.  119 

there  that  he  would  not  beat  2:14,  expecting  to  save  the 
money  that  he  had  in  the  French  pools ;  but  as  the  sequel 
will  show,  he  misunderstood  the  terms  of  the  betting  in 
both  pools  and  lost  his  money  two  ways.  In  going  the 
second  heat  in  2:50  Rarus  lost  the  money  that  Uncle  Ben 
had  in  the  French  pools,  and  when  we  got  the  word  in  the 
third  heat  he  went  it  in  2:13^,  which  cost  Uncle  Ben  the 
money  that  he  had  bet  in  the  auction  pools,  being  thereby, 
as  Jack  Bachelor  would  say,  ' '  whipsawed  on  the  last  turn." 
The  only  mistake  that  I  think  I  made  in  this  trial  was  in 
allowing  them  to  have  the  track  so  high,  and  then  in  driving 
him  away  from  the  wire  faster,  I  think,  than  I  ought  to 
have  done  ;  at  least,  this  was  my  opinion  after  the  race  was 
over.  I  think  that  when  the  judges  said  "go"  in  the  last 
heat,  Rarus  must  have  been  going  at  least  a  2:10  clip. 
On  the  second  turn  I  took  him  back  the  least  bit,  and  when 
we  swung  into  the  back  stretch  I  cut  him  loose  again.  He 
did  not  drive  as  he  did  at  Cleveland,  but  seemed  to  have  a 
disposition  to  pull  all  the  time — something  that  was  very 
unnatural  with  him,  as  he  never  wanted  to  do  this  unless 
the  track  was  wet  or  muddy.  Rarus  j)ulled  less  than  any 
horse  I  ever  saw,  and  went  his  heats  with  just  the  least  hold 
of  the  bit.  He  wanted  to  be  driven  about  as  a  man  would 
play  a  violin,  with  the  ends  of  the  lingers.  He  went  steadily 
true  all  the  way  to  the  head  of  the  sti-etch,  and  there  he 
made  a  wobble,  as  though  he  was  going  to  break.  I  steadied 
him  around  the  turn  and  at  the  distance  stand  commenced 
to  drive  iiim.  He  did  n(^t  finish  as  well  as  at  Cleveland, 
but  still  went  the  mile  in  2:13^. 

As  I  turned  him  around  beyond  the  judges'  stand  to 
come  back,  my  old  friend  Jack  Feek  ran  down,  and  with  as 
much  pleasure  expressed  on  his  face  as  there  was  on  mine 
when  I  bought  my  first  drum,  he  announced  to  me  that 
Rai'us  had  beaten  the  best  record,  having  gone  the  mile  in 
2:13^.  By  this  time,  it  seemed  as  though  every  man,  wo- 
man, and  child  on  the  track  had  been  apprised  of  the  fact, 
although  the  judges  had  not  as  yet  given  their  decision. 


120  LIFE   WITH    THE   TROTTERS, 

By  the  time  I  returned  to  the  stand,  the  quarter  stretch 
was  one  mass  of  howling,  screaming,  and  surging  men,  boys, 
and  women,  and  the  grand  stands  looked  as  though  they 
had  been  depopulated  by  an  earthquake.  After  a  moment 
or  two  of  this  sort  of  thing,  the  judges  were  able  to  get 
partial  quiet,  and  announced  the  heat,  and  then  commenced 
such  an  uproar  as  I  had  never  up  to  that  time  seen  or  heard 
of.  As  Barney  led  Rarus  to  the  stable,  a  crowd  gathered 
about  them,  and  it  was  with  great  difficulty  that  he  could 
get  the  horse  through  the  people.  The  judges  insisted  on 
my  making  a  speech.  Someone  had  advertised  me  as  being 
a  great  talker,  but  at  that  particular  moment,  and,  as  I 
believe,  the  only  time  on  record,  I  had  lost  my  talk.  To 
me  it  seemed  rather  strange,  that  here  over  this  race- track, 
where  I  used  to  come  in  my  boyhood  days  to  play  hookey 
from  school,  and  where  I  took  my  first  lessons  in  the  trot- 
ting business,  I  should  in  after  years  accomplish  a  feat  that 
had  been  tried  by  the  whole  world,  but  in  which  no  one  had 
ever  before  succeeded.  Goldsmith  Maid's  record  had 
stood  for  six  years,  and  I  think  the  man  that  would  not 
have  been  proud  to  have  the  horse  to  beat  it  must,  to  say 
the  least,  be  a  little  cold  blooded. 

My  only  regret  in  the  whole  affair  was  that  Mr.  Conklin, 
my  partner  and  friend,  was  detained  at  his  home  by  illness, 
and  was  not  able  to  witness  the  result.  But  as  soon  as  the 
telegraph  wire  could  be  brought  into  use,  he  was  made 
acquainted  with  the  fact  that  his  wjldest  dreams  had  been 
more  than  realized.  They  afterward  told  me  that  every 
fisherman  on  the  Long  Island  shore  blew  his  tin  horn  the 
most  of  the  night  after  the  news  had  come  that  Rarus  had 
beaten  Goldsmith  Maid's  record.  I  hardly  think  that 
General  Harrison  received  any  more  congrp^tulatory  tele- 
grams on  the  night  of  his  election  to  the  Presidency  than  I 
did  the  night  after  Rarus  went  this  mile  in  2:13^.  I  soon 
had  from  Mr.  Conklin  a  dispatch  in  which  he  said:  "Hur- 
rah for  Splan,  and  hurrah  for  Rarus." 

The  following  week,  at  Rochester,  Rarus' s  iDerformance 


LIFE   WITH    THE   TROTTERS.  121 

l^roved  to  me  that  what  I  had  said  about  the  Buffalo  track 
was  right.  Knowing  that  the  track  was  very  hard  at 
Buffalo,  I  was  extra  cautious  in  the  way  of  care,  and  the 
attention  that  the  horse  should  have  after  the  race,  and  in 
bringing  him  out  free  from  soreness,  etc.  But  when  we 
arrived  at  Rochester,  and  I  went  out  to  work  him,  I  found 
tliat  in  spite  of  all  the  attention  and  care  he  was  sore,  had 
no  speed,  and  I  was  certain  could  not  make  a  good  per- 
formance. My  arrangement  with  the  association  at  Roch- 
ester was  that  I  was  to  try  and  beat  2:18.  They  came  to 
me  and  wanted  to  make  a  new  contract,  and  have  me  try  to 
beat  the  horse's  new  record.  I  told  them  1  could. not  under- 
take to  do  it,  and  explained  why.  I  was  sure  my  horse 
would  not  be  able  to  beat  2:14,  and  I  did  not  want  to  an- 
nounce to  the  public  that  I  was  going  to  try  and  do  some- 
thing that  I  knew  I  was  unable  to  accomplish.  I  told  them, 
liowever,  I  would  try  to  beat  2:18.  Of  course,  the  public 
and  the  pool-buyers  thought  that  to  do  this,  Rarus  had 
only  to  Jog  around  the  track.  The  sequel  will  prove  that 
they  were  wrong,  as  the  best  he  could  do  was  three  heats 
in  2:18,  2:19,  and  2:17|,  thereby  losing  the  race. 

The  following  week,  at  Utica,  he  had  recovered  a  good- 
deal  of  his  old-time  form,  as  he  went  the  lirst  mile  over  the 
Utica  track,  which  was  never  considered  fast,  in  2:15;  the 
second,  in  2:15^;  and  came  back  the  third  time,  in  2:17^ — the 
best  three  heats  ever  trotted  over  that  track  to  this  day. 

From  there  we  went  to  Hartford,  the  following  week, 
where  Rarus  trotted  the  three  best  heats  he  ever  went.  He 
also  beat  Goldsmith  Maid's  best  record  in  two  of  the  heats, 
and  made  what  was  looked  upon  by  most  people  as  his  best 
performance  up  to  that  date.  At  Hartford  we  had  a  good 
week,  the  weather  being  line,  and  the  track  in  good  condi- 
tion. This  year  Gus  Glidden  brought  out  Edwin  Forrest, 
and,  before  going  any  further,  I  want  to  say  a  few  words 
about  Gus  as  a  horse  trainer.  There  was  one  point  in  wdiich 
I  think  Gus  excelled  every  man  I  ever  saw.  You  give  him 
one  of  those  double-gaited,  shifty,  x>acing  horses  that  are 


122  LIFE   Vv'ITH    THE   TUOTTEK8. 

occasionalh'  met  with,  and  lie  could  coine  nearer  straighten- 
ing- him  out,  and  making  him  go  on  a  stiaight  trot,  in  less 
time  than  any  man  I  ever  saw.  In  fact,  so  impressed  was 
I  with  his  ability  in  that  line,  that  I  took  a  few  lessons  from 
him,  wdiich  1  afterward  found  very  useful.  As  I  am  writing 
this  book  for  information,  I  would  be  glad  to  tell  the  public 
all  about  this  double-gaited  business,  but  like  many  other 
things  in  which  men  excel,  I  think  the  ability  to  drive  such 
horses  is  a  gift,  and  in  Glidden's  case  proved  very  proiitable, 
as,  out  of  that  kind  of  material  to  develop  race-horses, 
(tus  made  enough  money  to  buy  one  of  the  finest  farms  in 
Indiana,  and,  while  there  are  some  people  in  Rush  County 
who  dress  better  than  Gus.  there  is  no  man  who  pays 
any  more  taxes  or  lives  higher.  In  1878,  Gus  hove  in 
sight  at  Louisville,  with  a  bay  gelding  called  Edwin  Forrest, 
"with  more  speed  and  less  sense,''  Gus  said,  "than  any 
critter  I  ever  set  eyes  on.''  I  saw  him  working  him  from 
Louisville  through  the  Michigan  circuit,  and  he  had  tools 
enough  with  him  to  break  into  a  safe  or  build  an  engine. 
About  the  time  the  grand  circuit  meetings  commenced, 
Gus's  horse  began  to  grow  better,  and  at  Cleveland  he  won 
a  race,  and  got  a  i-ecord  of  2:18,  in  a,  large  field  of  horses, 
thereby  placing  himself  at  one  bound  in  the  front  rank, 
and  adding  several  acres  of  ground  to  Gus'  already  baro- 
nial holdings.  About  the  time  of  the  Hartford  meeting,  our 
friend,  Charley  Green,  got  Edwin  Forrest,  and  stated  his 
Avillingness  to  show  him  a  mile  against  time,  and  try  to 
beat  the  best  heat  that  Rarus  should  make.  I  thought 
Charley  was  flying  at  pretty  high  game,  but  for  a  considera- 
tion that  the  association  promised  him,  he  started  out  on 
the  same  day  that  Rarus  did  to  go  against  the  watch.  In 
the  morning  I  met  Messrs.  David  and  Allie  Bonner.  Mr. 
Allie  Bonner  asked  me  what  I  thought  my  chances  were 
with  Edwin  Forrest,  and  I  told  him  I  did  not  think  there  was 
any  chance  at  all  about  it;  that  I  was  sure  that  Rarus  could 
trot  three  heats  that  would  average  better  than  the  best 
heat  Edwin  Forrest  could  go.    When  Green  brought  Edwin 


LIFE   WITH   THE   TROTTERS.  123 

Forrest  out,  lie  looked  and  acted  as  though  he  was  fit  to  trot 
for  a  man's  life.  When  they  gave  the  word,  he  was  going 
true  as  an  arrow,  and  as  he  turned  into  the  back  stretch  he 
cut  loose  at  a  rate  of  speed  that  looked  to  me  as  though  he 
was  not  only  going  to  beat  Earns' s  time,  but  knock  the 
watches  out  of  their  cases  as  well.  He  went  down  to  the 
half-mile  post  better  than  1:06.  Of  course,  I  did  not  want 
anybody' s  horse  to  beat  Rarus,  but  at  that  x^articular  time 
it  looked  as  though  he  was  going  to  get  a  horse  race.  For- 
rest came  on  into  the  stretch  at  what  apx^eared  a  terrific 
gait,  but  about  an  eighth  of  a  mile  from  the  judges'  stand,  the 
high  rate  of  s^ieed  commenced  to  tell  on  him,  and  he  finished 
the  mile  in  2:14|,  which  seemed  to  me,  for  a  horse  that 
never  had  any  more  training,  certainly  a  wonderful  per- 
formance, as  I,  myself,  with  one  of  the  grandest  horses  I 
ever  saw,  had  been  hard  at  work  for  two  or  three  years 
before  I  could  make  him  go  that  well.  Edwin  Forrest  was 
afterward  sold  to  II  obert  Bonner,  and  made  some  wonderful 
performances  both  to  harness  and  wagon.  After  this  heat  I 
met  Allie  Bonner,  and  he  asked  me  what  I  thought  about  the 
red  apple  that  I  had  agreed  to  forfeit  in  case  Edwin  Forrest 
made  a  better  performance  than  Rarus.  I  told  him  that  I 
would  not  have  to  buy  it,  as  Rarus  would  trot  three  heats 
that  Avould  average  as  good  or  better  than  2:14f,  which  he 
did  by  turning  the  track  three  times,  in  2:15,  2:13|,  and 
2:13|,  making  the  great  average  of  2:14|,  and  thereby 
making  good  all  I  had  claimed  in  favor  of  the  horse.  I 
think  this  performance  se'tled  in  the  minds  of  everyone 
who  saw  it,  that,  beyond  all  doubt,  Rarus  was  the  king. 

The  only  other  races  trotted  that  season  by  Rarus,  that 
would  interest  the  public,  are  the  ones  at  Minneapolis,  where 
the  people  fancied  they  were  being  wronged,  and  that  at 
Chicago,  between  Rarus,  HoiJeful,  and  Great  Eastern,  that 
drew  40, 000  people  to  the  track,  and  demonstrated  the  ability 
of  Rarus  to  pull  a  wagon  in  2:15^  over  a  track  that  had  just 
been  made,  and,  in  addition,  was  dead  and  damp  from  late 
rains.   My  first  engagement  in  the  far  West  was  made  willi 


124  LIFE  WITH  THE  TROTTEES. 

Col.  William  King,  of  Minneapolis,  who  has  been  a  Congress- 
man, and  held  several  offices  of  public  trust,  to  which  he 
has  been  elevated  by  the  votes  of  the  people  of  that  section, 
and  a  leading  man  in  all  the  public  undertakings  of  Minne- 
sota. 1  contracted  with  him  to  go  to  Minneapolis  and  show 
Rarus  three  heats  at  the  fair.  At  this  time  there  was  a  great 
strife  between  Minneapolis  and  St.  Paul.  The  St.  Paul 
people  concluded  they  would  have  a  fair  at  the  same  time, 
and  1,  not  knowing  about  this  feeling,  engaged  with  the 
president,  Mr.  Finch,  to  show  Rarus  at  that  fair  also.  I 
agreed  to  show  at  St.  Paul  on  Tuesday  and  at  Minneapolis 
Friday.  Long  before  I  arrived  in  that  country,  I  had  learned, 
by  both  the  newspapers  and  the  telegraph,  that  unknowingly 
I  had  got  myself  in  hot  water,  as  the  Minneapolis  people 
claimed  that,  having  engaged  with  them,  I  had  no  right  to 
show  at  St.  Paul.  While  I  would  not  have  done  it  had  I 
known  the  feeling  that  existed,  I  had,  at  the  same  time,  as 
much  right  to  trot  my  horse  at  St.  Paul  that  week  as  I  would 
have  to  do  so  the  next  year,  and  I  saw  no  way  to  get  out  of 
it.  When  the  MinneajDolis  people  found  that  1  had  my  horse 
at  St.  Paul,  and  intended  to  start  him  there  on  Tuesday,  they 
opened  up  on  me  in  the  newspapers,  and  I  got  more  abuse 
than  any  politician  that  ever  ran  for  office.  Everything  they 
could  think  of  to  say  was  said  with  a  vengeance.  I  saw^  Mr. 
King,  and  we  talked  the  matter  over,  and  we  both  viewed 
the  affair  in  the  same  light.  He  expressed  regret  that  the 
newspapers  had  given  me  such  a  going  over,  but  I  said  to 
him,  ' '  Let  them  go  on.  It  is  the  best  advertised  affair  that 
has  come  off  in  these  parts  for  a  long  while." 

The  day  of  the  St.  Paul  race,  I  showed  Rarus  to  a  crowd 
of  people,  such  as  I  had  never  before  seen,  they,  of  course, 
taking  my  part  on  every  turn.  Rarus  went  in  2:16,  which 
I  thought  a  good  x)erformance,  considering  the  track.  From 
there  we  journeyed  to  Minneapolis,  and  the  reception  that  I 
received  on  all  sides  there,  made  me  think  that  I  must  be  a 
very  mean  man.  Still,  as  I  was  to  receive  $3,000  in  money 
for  the  exhibition,  and  had  already  earned  the  same  amount 


LIFE   WITH   THE   TKOTTEKS.  125 

for  that  in  St.  Paul,  I  concluded  that  I  could  afford  to  pocket 
my  feelings.  The  papers  came  out  with  all  sorts  of  state- 
ments, one  man  going  so  far  as  to  say  that  I  did  not  intend 
to  drive  my  horse  a  good  mile,  and  that,  if  I  did  not  beat 
the  record  made  at  St.  Paul,  the  public  ought  to  come  down 
and  hang  me.  The  only  fear  I  had  was  that  the  track  would 
not  be  in  such  a  condition  as  to  make  it  possible  for  Rarus 
to  go  a  good  mile.  The  cattle  and  horses  had  plowed  it  up 
until  it  looked  like  a  garden.  Mace  had  shown  Hopeful  a 
mile  there,  and  driven  him  in  2:14f,  and,  as  a  matter  of 
course,  I  was  anxious  to  beat  that.  I  set  to  work  myself  on 
the  track,  and  got  it  into  the  best  possible  condition  I  could. 
Mr.  Charles  M.  Smith,  the  best  starter  in  the  country,  was 
there  in  charge  of  the  judges'  stand.  The  night  before  the 
race,  in  a  talk  at  the  hotel,  Mr.  Smith  told  me  that  he  was 
afraid  there  would  be  a  riot  in  case  Rarus  was  unable  to  go 
well.  Of  course,  I  knew  that  Rarus  could  not  be  right  on 
an  edge,  having  traveled  so  far  in  the  cars,  and  having  al- 
ready gone  three  heats  in  the  same  week,  and  I  thought 
myself  it  would  be  very  doubtful  whether  he  would  be  able 
to  beat  Hoi:)efurs  mark  of  2:14|.  Mr.  Smith  said  to  me  he 
thought  it  would  be  a  good  idea  for  him,  on  the  following 
day,  to  make  a  little  speech  to  the  public,  state  the  facts  of 
the  case,  and  to  try  and  make  them  understand  that  I  had 
come  there  to  give  them  the  best  possible  race  I  could  with 
my  horse.  When  the  time  of  the  race  arrived,  and  I  brouglit 
out  the  horse,  Mr.  Smith,  in  a  very  neat  speech,  stated  the 
case  to  the  public.  They  didn'  t  seem  to  notice  much  what 
he  said,  and  took  it  very  coolly. 

When  I  brought  Rarus  out  to  warm  him  up  there  was  a 
disposition  on  the  part  of  a  good  many  to  hiss,  and  in  other 
ways  to  show  their  hostility  to  myself  and  horse.  The 
weather  was  varying,  and  looked  as  though  it  might  rain  at 
any  moment,  and  I  concluded  that,  contrary  to  my  usual 
method,  I  would  warm  Rarus  up,  and  try  to  give  him  his 
best  mile  first.  I  got  the  word  and  drove  him  in  2:15|^, 
thereby  beating  the  best  mile  that  had  been  accomplished 


126  LIFE  WITH  THE  TROTTERS. 

over  the  St.  Paul  track,  wMch  fact  seemed  to  mollify  the 
populance  to  a  large  extent.  Of  course,  this  mile  was  too 
fast  for  a  warming  up  heat,  and  not  fast  enough  to  beat 
2:14,  thereby  diminishing  my  chances  of  doing  it.  The  next 
mile  I  again  essayed  to  beat  Hopeful's  record,  but  failed, 
finishing  the  mile  in  2: 15 J.  The  crowd  by  this  time  had 
Avorked  itself  into  good  nature,  and  were  willing  to  cheer 
and  shout  as  hard  and  as  long  as  they  could.  When  I  took 
Rarus  back  to  the  cooling  shed,  I  told  Barney  and  Dave  to 
take  care  of  him  and  to  cool  him  out;  that  I  would  drive 
him  an  easy  mile  in  the  third  heat,  as  I  was  not  going  to 
try  to  beat  Hopeful' s  record.  If  I  had  reduced  their  wages 
the  boys  would  not  have  felt  half  as  badly.  They  could  not 
bear  the  thought  of  Hopeful's  2:14|,  and  said  so.  Dave 
suggested  that  we  cool  Rarus  out  and  get  a  runner  to  go 
with  him,  as  he  felt  sure  that  under  those  circumstances  he 
would  do  the  trick.  To  satisfy  the  boys,  more  than  any- 
thing else,  I  consented  to  this  arrangement.  When  we 
came  out  in  the  third  heat  the  wind  had  lowered.  I  had  a 
man  run  a  scraper  round  the  track,  and  when  the  judges 
said  go,  and  Rarus  and  the  runner  started  on  their  mile,  the 
crowd  gave  a  cheer  that  I  have  never  forgotten.  The  horse 
went  straight  from  start  to  finish,  and  trotted  the  mUe  in 
2:14J,  beating  Hopeful' s  record  by  a  quarter  of  a  second, 
and  showing  three  heats  better  than  the  best  he  had  gone  at 
St.  Paul,  thereby  making  every  man,  woman,  and  child  in 
Minneapolis  sleeplessly  happy,  and  my  friends  for  life. 
For  the  balance  of  the  week,  they  loaded  Rarus  and  myself 
with  flowers,  bouquets,  and  everything  from  a  tooth  pick  to 
a  fly -back  watch. 

From  Minneapolis  I  made  a  circuit  of  the  country,  giv- 
ing exhibitions  at  Dubuque  and  Kansas  City,  and  from 
there  went  to  St.  Louis,  where  I  staid  two  weeks,  and 
was  obliged  to  show  Rarus  under  a  tent,  as  the  track  was 
not  large  enough  for  him  to  exhibit  on.  In  the  meantime  a 
race  had  been  arranged  by  the  Chicago  track,  between 
Rarus  to  wagon.  Hopeful  in  harness,  and  Great  Eastern 


LIFE  WITH   THE  TROTTEES.  127 

under  saddle.  This  race  was  trotted  on  the  10th  of  Octo- 
ber, over  a  track  that  had  just  been  built,  and  that  was  dull 
and  damp  from  rain  the  day  before.  Rarus  came  to 
Chicago  at  the  end  of  one  of  the  severest  campaigns  that  a 
horse  had  ever  made,  and  in  no  condition  to  show  his  best. 
In  the  betting,  Hopeful  was  a  long  favorite,  he  having 
shown  some  grand  miles.  I  told  my  friends  I  had  no  faith 
in  the  race,  and  I  think  they  did  not  put  a  dollar  on.  For 
the  day  and  track,  the  race  was  a  first-class  pterformance. 
Hopeful  winning  in  straight  heats,  in  2:17^,  2:17,  2:17, 
Rarus  second  all  the  time,  and  Great  Eastern  third.  At 
this  race  there  was  the  greatest  crowd  of  people  I  ever  saw 
at  a  regular  horse-trotting  event,  it  being  estimated  at  all 
the  way  from  30,000  to  50,000. 

Two  days  later,  when  the  track  was  much  faster  and  the 
weather  bright  and  warm.  Hopeful  made  his  "wagon  record 
of  2:16^^,  and  this  set  some  people  to  thinking  that  Hox)eful 
could  beat  Rarus  at  even  hitch,  both  going  in  harness.  The 
first  that  I  heard  about  that  was  when  Mr.  Conklin  broke 
into  my  room  one  morning  in  a  heated  condition,  with  a 
newspaper  in  his  hand.  He  jDointed  excitedly  to  an  article 
in  it  which  stated  that  the  p>ublic  thought  Rarus  had  had 
his  day  and  that  Hoi^eful  could  beat  him.  He  said  he 
would  like  to  have  me  answer  that  article  over  his  name. 

"  Well,"  said  I  to  him,  "  wlmt  will  I  say  to  them? " 

"Tell  them  for  me,"  he  rej)lied,  "that  Rarus  can  beat 
Hopeful  any  kind  of  a  race  that  two  horses  ever  trotted." 

' '  How  much  money  will  I  say  you  want  to  bet  on  him  ?" 
I  asked.    Said  Mr.  Conklin:  "  Ten  thousand  dollars  in  money 
and  this  year' s  crop  of  hay."     There  was  some  newspaper 
correspondence,  but  no  race. 

Talking  about  matching  Hopeful  against  Rarus  brings 
to  my  mind  some  other  ^^eople  who  were  anxious  to  match 
their  horses  against  Rarus.  The  previous  winter,  while  Rarus 
was  being  wintered  at  Cleveland,  the  owner  of  the  stallion 
Smuggler  had  announced  in  an  eastern  sporting  Journal  his 
willingness  to  trot  that  horse  against  Rarus,  and  out  of  it 


128  LIFE  WITH   THE   TKOTTEKS. 

grew  a  pretty  lively  news^Daper  controversy,  but  no  liorse-race. 
From  Chicago  Mr.  Conklin  wended  liis  way  to  his  Long  Island 
home,  and  I  started  for  the  Pacific  with  Rarus,  giving  exhi- 
bitions in  several  places  on  the  way  there,  to  which  he  drew 
great  crowds  of  peoi^le  and  always  trotted  the  tracks  faster 
than  any  other  horse  had  np  to  that  time.  On  my  arrival 
in  San  Francisco  I  trotted  Rarus  in  an  engagement  next 
da}"-  after  getting  off  the  cars,  in  which  he  went  in  2:14,  2:14^. 
I  state  this  to  prove  what  a  wonderful  horse  he  was.  He 
had  started  in  races  all  over  the  country,  been  twice  across 
the  continent  and  as  far  north  as  Minneapolis,  and  the  next 
day  after  a  ten  days'  railroad  trip  beat  2:15  twice. 

I  have  often  heard  people  say  that  Rarus  was  a  weak 
and  washy  horse.  I  don't  think  that  needs  any  denial,  as 
his  performances  are  the  strongest  argument.  Naturally, 
after  a  campaign  of  that  length,  he  was  reduced  in  flesh, 
and  his  feet  had  commenced  to  trouble  him  a  good  deal.  I 
immediately  concluded  to  stoj)  driving  him,  reduce  his  feed, 
and  commence  to  nurse  his  feet.  Rarus  was  a  great  horse 
to  recuperate,  and  it  was  but  a  short  time  before  he  com- 
menced to  show  his  old-time  axDpearance  and  spirit.  I  gave 
him  very  moderate  work  and  trotted  him  at  few  exhibitions 
in  California  that  winter.  In  the  spring  I  brought  him  to 
Sacramento,  thinking  to  prepare  him  for  his  trip  home.  He 
was  a  great  horse  to  play  in  a  stall  and  at  the  end  of  a  halter. 
One  day,  while  in  Sacramento,  as  I  stood  watching  him,  he 
laid  down  and  began  to  roll  in  the  stall,  and  when  he  was 
through  he  sprang  up  suddenly.  His  hind  feet  went  out 
from  under  him  and  he  fell.  I  was  frightened  lest  he  might 
have  bruised  himself  in  some  way.  I  looked  over  him  very 
carefully,  had  him  led  out,  but  saw  nothing  to  indicate  that 
he  had  hurt  himself.  The  next  morning  when  I  went  out  to 
work  Rarus  I  thought  he  was  slightly  lame  behind.  I  spoke 
to  Dave  about  it,  and  he  said  he  thought  not;  but  I  felt 
sure  I  was  right.  As  the  horse' s  shoes  had  been  on  for  some 
time,  I  took  him  to  the  blacksmith's  shop,  hoping  to  find 
the  cause  of  his  lameness.     At  this  time  there  was  no  swell- 


LIFE   WITH   THE  TKOTTERS.  129 

ing  or  any  indication  of  puffing  in  his  leg.  We  found  noth- 
ing in  his  feet  to  indicate  any  soreness,  so  I  brought  him  home, 
hoiking  that  I  was  mistaken  and  that  it  was  merely  fancy 
on  my  part.  When  I  harnessed  Rarus  the  next  morning- 
there  was  no  doubt  about  his  being  lame.  I  took  him  back 
to  the  stall,  had  the  harness  taken  off,  and  examined  every 
part  of  the  limb  and  foot  again  carefully,  but  was  unable 
to  locate  the  seat  of  the  lameness.  I  sent  for  a  veterinary, 
and  he  examined  him  with  no  better  success.  I  have  often 
lost  the  last  dollar  that  I  had  in  the  world,  and  some  that  I 
did  not  have,  but  I  can  never  remember  the  losing  of  my 
money  having  cost  me  a  thought  or  a  i^article  of  trouble. 
If  you  have  a  brick  house,  and  it  tumbles  down,  and  you 
have  the  xorice,  you  can  go  and  buy  another  one;  but  if  you 
have  the  best  race-horse  in  the  world,  and  he  goes  lame  or 
dies,  all  the  money  in  the  world  can  not  fill  his  place. 

These  were  my  feelings  at  that  time.  Iliad  all  the  res^Don- 
•sibility;  the  horse's  owner  was  in  Long  Island,  and  Rarus 
with  me  in  California.  After  the  veterinary  had  examined 
him  very  closely,  and  could  not  find  the  trouble,  I  concluded 
not  to  harness  him  again  until  I  could  locate  it.  The  next 
morning,  which  was  forty-eight  hours  after  I  first  discovered 
his  lameness,  I  went  to  the  stable,  and  found  that  the  entire 
surface  of  one  hind  leg  was  very  much  swollen,  with  a  good 
deal  of  fever,  and  that  the  horse  was  very  lame  on  it.  I 
sent  again  for  the  veterinary,  and  he  came  and  looked  him 
over.  He  turned  to  me  and  said:  "There  is  just  one  thing 
to  do  with  that  horse;  get  the  fever  out  of  his  leg,  and  fire 
and  blister  him. ' '  I  said : ' '  Doctor,  is  that  the  only  remedy?' ' 
He  said  yes;  that  nothing  else  would  ever  do.  I  said: 
' '  Doctor,  it  will  never  be  done.  No  horse  that  has  been  as 
good  and  brave  as  that  one  will  ever  be  fired  with  my  con- 
sent. I  will  take  him  home  to  Long  Island,  where  he  shall 
end  the  balance  of  his  days  in  peace  and  plenty. "  There- 
upon the  doctor  discharged  himself,  and  left  Rarus  to  Dave 
and  me.  We  applied  some  simple  cooling  lotions,  kept 
him  tied  up  by  the  head,  so  that  he  could  not  walk  about, 


130  LIFE   Vv'ITII   THE   TROTTERS, 

had  liis  feed  reduced,    and   postponed  his  training  indefi- 
nitely. 

This  treatment  we  followed  for  about  three  weeks,  and 
when  the  acute  heat  and  fever  had  been  entirely  removed,  I 
found,  close  to  his  ankle,  a  small  enlargement  that  had  never 
been  there  before,  and  which  was  the  cause  of  a  good  deal 
of  the  trouble.  Of  course,  I  had  no  idea  whether  he  would 
stand  campaigning  again  or  not.  I  gave  him  a  few  days' 
moderate  jogging,  and  then  shii^ped  him  East,  stopping  on 
my  way  at  several  places  to  trot  my  other  horses.  Rarus's 
leg  seemed  to  improve,  and  he  showed  no  lameness.  I  think 
it  is  a  true  saying  that  misfortunes  never  come  singly,  and 
the  truth  of  this  was  illustrated  to  me  in  this  particular 
case.  I  went  to  Rarus'  s  stable  one  morning,  and  found  him 
the  lamest  horse  forward  I  ever  saw,  and  apparently  in  great 
pain.  I  examined  his  foot  carefully,  and  found  nothing  to 
indicate  where  the  lameness  was.  I  was  sure  it  was  in  the 
foot,  and  commenced  to  treat  him  with  hot  water  and  hot 
poultices,  which  I  kept  up  for  about  forty-eight  hours.  His 
foot  gathered  and  broke  near  the  coronet;  the  wall  sei^arated 
on  the  right  side  of  the  foot,  and  we  were  obliged  to  cut  away 
a  great  portion  of  the  wall,  and  leave  the  live  i^art  ex^^osed. 
I  had  a  compress  made  with  a  strap  and  buckles,  and  x)ut 
that  on  him  whenever  I  worked  or  jogged  him.  It  looked  to 
me  at  that  time  as  though  he  w^ould  not  be  trained  again  that 
year.  I  jogged  him  along  very  moderately.  Previous  to 
this  I  had  made  an  arrangement  to  trot  Rarus  against 
Hopeful  over  the  Chicago  track  July  24.  When  I  arrived 
at  Chicago,  I  immediately  went  and  stated  the  facts  of  the 
case  to  Col.  John  W.  Conley,  the  manager  of  the  track, 
telling  him  that  I  had  not  the  slightest  idea  that  Earns 
would  be  tit  to  start  in  any  race  that  year.  He  said  to  me: 
"  Let  the  matter  stand  just  as  it  is,  and  on  the  first  of  July 
you  let  me  know  what  the  prosj)ects  are,  and  if  you  then 
say  he  will  not  be  fit  to  start,  I  will  arrange  for  some  other 
attraction.  This  race  grew  out  of  a  newspaper  talk  of  the 
year  previous  about  Hopeful  and  Rarus,  and  the  Chicago 


LIFE   WITH   THE   TROTTETiS,  131 

Association  generously  offered  $5,000  to  be  trotted  for, 
entrance  free.  I  concluded  to  work  Rarus  along  mode- 
rately, start  him  a  race  or  two,  and  see  whether  or  not  he 
would  stand  up.  I  did  so,  and  started  him  the  first  race  at 
Jackson,  over  a  half-mile  track,  where  he  went  an  exhibition 
in  2:20^.  Two  weeks  later  I  went  to  Toledo,  Ohio,  where 
Rarus  trotted  in  2:20,  and  then  I  notified  Colonel  Conley  that 
I  would  be  able  to  start  on  the  24tli  of  July  in  Chicago. 

At  this  time  I  had  not  trotted  Rarus  at  his  best  s^Deed, 
nor  did  I  think  he  would  be  fit  to  beat  Hopeful  in  the  race, 
but,  rather  than  disaj)x>oint  the  association,  I  was  willing  to 
take  the  chances  and  trot  him.  As  it  turned  out.  Earns  im- 
proved faster  than  I  thought  he  would,  and  won  an  easy 
race  from  Hopeful  in  Chicago,  in  2:17|,  2:21,  and  2:18.  There 
was  a  big  attendance,  and  a  good  deal  of  betting  on  the  race. 
The  following  week  he  started  against  Hopeful,  at  Cleveland, 
and  beat  him  in  three  straight  heats,  trotting  the  third  mile 
in  2:15,  which  was  the  best  of  the  race.  At  Buffalo,  he  went, 
in  an  exhibition,  in  2:18,  2:14f.  By  this  time,  Rarus  was 
back  to  his  old  form,  and,  at  Rochester,  August  14,  in  a 
gale  of  wind,  he  trotted  three  heats  in  2:17J,  2:1G,  2:13^,  the 
last  mile  being  within  a  quarter  of  a  second  of  his  best  record. 
When  he  came  to  go  this  mile,  there  was  a  good  deal  of 
betting  on  the  time,  with  very  long  odds  that  he  would  not 
beat  2:14.  I  never  knew  his  owner,  Mr.  Conklin,  to  jmt  a 
dollar  on  him,  or  buy  a  pool  ticket,  always  leaving  that  part 
of  the  business  with  me.  This  day,  however,  he  heard  some 
one  say  he  would  bet  a  hundred  to  ten,  that  Rarus  would 
not  beat  2:14.  After  I  had  gone  the  first  two  heats,  the 
weather  became  very  bad,  and  I  concluded  not  to  drive  him 
another  mile,  and  so  stated  to  the  boys,  whom  I  ordered  to 
take  him  to  the  stable.  About  this  time,  "Pap,"  as  we 
called  him,  came  along,  and  told  me  what  he  had  done, 
namely,  that  he  had  bet  that  Rarus  would  beat  2:14.  I  told 
him  I  had  not  intended  to  trot  another  heat,  and  wished  that 
he  had  not  bet  the  money.  He  said:  "  That  does  not  make 
any  difference.     Don't  drive  him  unless  you  feel  lilve  it. 


132  LIFE   WITH   THE   TIlOTTEllS. 

Never  mind  tlie  ten  dollars/'  I  said:  "  No;  put  llr," harness 
on  him.  I  would  rather  win  that  pool  ticket  for  you  than 
to  win  the  whole  world  for  anybody  else."  I  told  the  old 
man  to  jjut  on  his  glasses,  go  up  in  the  grand  stand,  and  sit 
down  and  see  Avhat  kind  of  a  battle  Rarus  and  myself  would 
make  for  his  money.  When  I  went  out  for  the  third  heat,  it 
was  late  in  the  evening,  the  wind  had  died  down,  and  most  of 
the  audience  had  left  the  track.  When  we  took  the  word, 
Rarus  was  going  straight  and  strong,  with  all  his  old-time 
speed  and  determination,  and  I  said  to  myself:  ' '  The  money 
is  Pap's."  As  we  turned  into  the  back  stretch,  I  heard 
something  clatter  on  his  hind  foot,  as  though  his  shoe  might 
have  been  loose,  and  started  to  pull  him  up.  About  that 
time,  one  of  his  scalpers  flew  off,  and,  as  I  knew  that  would 
not  make  much  difference  to  him,  I  kept  him  going,  and, 
when  we  rounded  into  the  stretch,  I  cut  him  loose  for  all 
that  was  in  sight.  True  to  his  old-time  record,  he  finished 
the  mile  in  2: 13 J,  thereby  mnning  the  pool  ticket  for  his 
owner,  and  coming  within  a  quarter  of  a  second  of  his  old 
best  performance.  It  never  entered  my  hiind  that  that  would 
be  the  last  fast  mile  I  would  ever  drive  Rarus.  It  so  turned 
out,  however,  and  the  reader  will  see  what  a  little  incident 
caused  me  to  make  such  a  fast  record  with  him  that  day. 
We  trotted  the  following  week  against  Hopeful,  and  won, 
the  best  mile  being  2:16. 

I  have  now  come  to  the  sale  of  Rarus  and  his  retirement 
from  the  turf  forever.  The  night  after  the  Utica  race,  my 
old  employer,  Mr.  Z.  E.  Simmons,  came  to  me  at  the  hotel, 
and  asked  me  if  Rarus  was  for  sale,  saying  that  if  such  was 
the  case,  he  would  like  to  have  a  price  on  him.  I  told  him 
that,  as  far  as  I  was  concerned,  if  I  could  be  guaranteed 
that  Rarus  would  be  sold  to  a  good  home,  I  would  consent 
to  the  sale  and  use  my  influence  with  ]\Ir.  Conklin  to  that 
effect,  providing,  of  course,  that  we  agreed  on  the  price. 
He  told  me  that,  while  he  was  not  at  liberty  to  give  the 
name  of  the  would-be  purchaser,  he  was  prepared  to  guar- 
antee me  all  I  asked.     He  said  he  would  leave  that  night 


LIFE  WITH  THE  TROTTEES.  133 

for  New  York,  and  wished  that,  after  talking  with  Mr. 
Conkliu,  I  woiiM  come  to  New  York  and  see  him.  I  com- 
municated these  facts  to  Mr.  Conklin,  and  by  apx^ointment 
we  met  in  New  York  two  days  later.  In  our  first  talk,  Mr. 
Conklin  opposed  the  idea  of  selling  Rarus  very  much.  He 
said  he  thought  that  after  all  the  good  Earns  had  done  him 
he  was  at  least  entitled  to  a  good  home  in  his  latter  days. 
I  said  that  Mr.  Simmons  was  ready  to  guarantee  that  the 
horse  would  have  as  good  a  home  as  any  animal  could  have. 
I  also  told  him  that  I  thought  it  was  more  humane  to  sell 
Rarus  to  a  good  home  while  in  the  prime  of  life  than  to 
keep  him  and  trot  him  until  he  was  old  and  worn  out  and 
suffered  defeat,  as  I  had  known  a  great  many  other  first-class 
horses  to  do.  This  seemed  to  strike  him  rather  forcibly, 
and  after  some  further  talk,  he  said  to  me,  ' '  You  have  at- 
tended to  all  the  trotting  of  him,  his  training  and  driving, 
and  have  control  of  him,  and  if  you  see  fit  to  sell  him  I  will  be 
satisfied  with  anything  you  do. ' '  I  took  a  carriage  and  drove 
to  Mr.  Simmons'  s  office,  and  told  him  that  I  had  come  pre- 
X^ared  to  put  a  price  or  Rarus.  I  then  told  him  that  the  price 
was  $40,000  in  cash.  We  had  some  talk,  which  ended  by 
Mr.  Simmons  offering  me  $30,000  for  him.  I  said  "No, 
$40,000,"  and  left  the  matter  there.  Mr.  Conklin  and  I 
took  the  train  for  Hartford  that  evening,  where  Rarus  had 
already  gone  to  meet  an  engagement.  Our  intention  was  to 
try  and  beat  his  record,  which  we  were  j)ositive  he  was  able 
to  do  at  that  time,  having  without  extra  preparation  gone 
the  third  heat  at  Rochester  in  2:13^.  I  gave  him  careful 
preparations  for  the  effort,  and  the  last  time  I  worked  him 
before  the  day  fixed  for  the  trial,  I  thought  him  a  better 
horse  than  ever.  He  seemed  in  the  pink  of  condition,  with 
unlimited  speed. 

The  morning  of  his  race,  H.  M.  Whitehead,  of  New  York, 
came  to  me  on  behalf  of  Mr.  Simmons,  with  regard  to  the 
sale  of  the  horse.  I  told  him,  as  I  had  stated  to  Mr.  Sim- 
mons, that  the  price  was  $40,000,  with  the  regular  commis- 
sion off  for  cash,  which  was  10  per  cent,     I  also  told  him 


134  LIFE   WITH   THE  TROTTERS. 

that  the  horse  had  engagements;  told  him  what  they  were; 
said  that  if  he  bought  Rarus  it  would  be  with  his  engage- 
ments, and  concluded  by  telling  him  that  I  would  not  sell 
the  horse  Avithout  the  engagements.  He  made  several  prop- 
ositions, none  of  which  I  accepted,  finally  telling  him  as 
we  stood  in  front  of  Rarus' s  stable,  he  with  his  head  out 
of  the  door,  that  there  was  the  horse,  and  that  for  $36,000 
he  could  have  him,  but  that  I  would  not  lead  him  over  the 
sill  of  the  door  for  him.  He  finally  said  that  he  would  take 
the  horse  for  Mr.  Simmons,  but  was  not  prepared  at  that 
time  to  pay  for  him.  I  told  him  that  if  the  horse  was  for 
Mr.  Simmons  he  could  pay  for  him  whenever  Mr.  Simnjons 
thought  fit.  I  told  him  that  he  was  now  Mr.  Simmons' s 
horse,  and  that  if  he  died  or  broke  his  neck,  Mr.  Simmons 
could  hand  Mr.  Conldin  $36,000  in  money,  just  the  same  as 
if  he  got  him  in  the  best  of  order  and  condition,  and  that  I 
exjoected  him  to  do  it.  This  took  i^lace  about  ten  o'  clock 
in  the  morning,  and  the  horse' s  engagement  was  to  trot  that 
afternoon.  I  thereupon  waited  upon  the  president  of  the 
association,  and  told  him  we  had  sold  Rarus,  with  his  en- 
gagements, to  Mr.  Whitehead  for  Mr.  Simmons  of  New 
York  City,  as  1 -understood,  informing  him,  in  addition,  that 
I  had  no  further  control  over  the  horse  in  any  way,  shape, 
or  manner.  The  president  interviewed  Mr.  Whitehead  on 
the  subject,  and  he  said  he  had  bought  the  horse,  but 
declined  to  trot  him,  as  his  owner  did  not  wish  to  do  so. 
That  was  all  that  took  j)lace  in  my  presence  at  that  time. 
When  I  went  to  the  hotel  for  dinner  I  met  Mr.  Conldin  and 
told  him  that  I  had  sold  Rarus  and  delivered  him  to  his 
owner's  agent.  He  says,  "Well,  I  suppose  it  will  have  to 
be,"  and  walked  away.  If  I  had  been  possessed  of  $36,000 
then,  I  would  have  given  it  for  Rarus,  just  to  have  had  the 
old  man  keep  him.  After  dinner,  of  which  neither  of  us 
ate  much,  Mr.  Conklin  and  myself  went  to  the  track,  and 
found  a  great  crowd  around  Rarus' s  stall.  We  drove  up, 
entered  the  back  door,  and  I  had  Dave,  the  boy,  lead 
Rarus  out  where  Mr.  Conklin  could  see  him.     I  never  saw 


LIFE   WITH   THE   TROTTEES.  135 

any  man  parting  witli  a  friend  show  more  feeling  tlian  Mr. 
Conklin  did  for  liis  liorse,  and  lie  bid  him  that  day  what  I 
believe  was  his  last  farewell,  as  I  think  he  never  saw  him 
afterward. 

When  the  hour  for  the  trot  arrived,  there  was  about  ten 
or  fifteen  thousand  people  on  the  ground.  It  had  got  noised 
about  that  Mr.  Whitehead  had  received  orders  from  New 
York  not  to  start  Rarus.  Of  course,  there  was  great  hub- 
bub and  excitement,  the  association  coming  to  me  about 
the  matter,  but  as  I  had  sold  the  liorse  with  his  engage- 
ments, I  referred  them  to  Mr.  Whitehead.  The  talk  ended 
by  his  refusing,  point  blank,  under  any  consideration,  to 
trot  the  horse.  The  officers  of  the  association  thereu^Don 
took  action  in  the  matter  in  a  manner  that  caused,  at  that 
time,  a  great  deal  of  unfavorable  comment,  and  which  they 
afterward,  at  their  own  motion,  rescinded,  thereby  showing 
that  they  considered  themselves  to  have  acted  hastily,  and 
to  have  imposed  an  unwarranted  and  unjust  punishment  on 
an  innocent  man — a  punishment  which  was  nothing  less 
than  the  expulsion  of  Mr.  Conklin  and  Rarus. 

The  people  were  wonderfully  surprised  when  the  presid- 
ing judge  rose  in  the  stand  and  announced  that  Mr.  R.  B. 
Conklin  and  the  bay  gelding  Rarus  were  expelled  from  all 
tracks  forever.  This  seemed  to  me  a  strange  and  pathetic 
ending  of  two  such  noted  characters  on  the  turf — the  man, 
one  who  had  bred,  raised,  owned,  and  trotted  the  grandest 
horse  that,  at  that  time,  the  public  had  ever  seen,  and  that 
probably  had  delighted  more  people  with  his  feats  of  speed 
than  any  other  horse  up  to  that  time;  a  man  who  had  scorned 
to  do  anything  unfair  or  unjust  from  the  first  to  last  of 
his  turf  career;  while  the  horse  was  one  that  had  gone  twice 
across  the  continent,  and  had  never  failed  to  do  his  best. 
For  those  two  to  be  expelled  at  the  end  of  such  a  career, 
and  that,  too,  by  the  ofiicers  of  the  track  over  which  the 
horse  had  made  what  were  then  the  three  fastest  consecutive 
heats  on  record,  was  a  sad,  as  well  as  strange,  termination 
to  a  course  of  honesty  in  both  man  and  beast. 


136  LIFE  WITH   THE  TROTTERS. 

When  this  announcement  was  read  out  from  the  judges' 
stand,  I  immediately  stood  up  in  front  of  it,  and  then  and 
there  protested  against  the  Judgment  as  being  wrong  in 
every  j)articular.  First  and  foremost,  I  stated  that  Mr. 
Conklin  did  not  control  the  horse;  that  he  made  no  engage- 
ment with  the  association  in  any  way  to  trot  the  horse  for 
them,  and  finished  by  saying  that,  if  anyone  was  to  blame 
or  to  be  ex^Delled,  I  considered  that  it  was  myself.  Why 
they  exxDelled  Mr.  Conklin  instead  of  me,  was  one  of  those 
things  that  I  could  never  find  out. 

By  this  time  it  was  rumored  that  Mr.  Robert  Bonner  was 
the  real  purchaser  of  Rarus,  and  a  grand  rush  was  made  by 
all  the  newspaper  reporters  to  see  who  could  first  find  out 
the  most  reliable  information.  Mr.  Allie  Bonner  was  on  the 
track,  and  he  was  interviewed  on  every  side.  When  asked 
if  his  father  owned  Rarus,  I  heard  him  say  that  he  might 
own  him,  but  that  if  he  did  he  knew  nothing  about  it.  I 
was  rather  anxious  on  the  point  myself,  and  asked  Mr. 
David  Bonner  whether  Mr.  Robert  Bonner  had  bought 
Rarus  or  not,  and  he  said  he  could  not  tell  me.  Nothing  had 
taken  jolace  in  regard  to  the  sale  of  a  horse  in  a  long  time 
that  was  so  much  written  and  talked  about  as  this.  The 
telegraph  wires  to  New  York  were  brought  into  play,  and  in 
that  manner  Mr.  Bonner  was  interviewed  from  all  sides.  In 
the  next  day' s  papers  was  the  authentic  news  that  Mr.  Rob- 
ert Bonner  was  the  owner  of  Rarus,  and  the  next  day  I 
received  a  telegram  from  Mr.  Simmons  asking  me  if  I  would 
bring  Rarus  to  New  York  for  him,  and  at  his  own  risk.  The 
following  morning  I  prepared  Rarus  for  the  trip,  got  his  traps 
together,  and  Mr  Conklin  and  myself  went  with  him  to  New 
York.  Arriving  at  Forty-second  street,  we  were  met  by  Mr. 
Simmons,  who  directed  the  horse  to  be  taken  to  Mr.  Bonner' s 
private  stable  on  Fifty-seventh  street,  near  Fifth  avenue. 

When  I  saw  the  boy  lead  Rarus  into  that  stable  all  my 
fears  with  regard  to  his  having  a  good  home  vanished.  I 
had  always  felt  that  there  was  one  duty  I  owed  Rarus,  and 
that  was  to  see  that  he  was  given  a  home  as  good  as  could  be 


LIFE   WITH  THE  TROTTERS.  137 

furnished  for  any  liorse  after  lie  had  become  useless  as  a 
turf  horse,  and  when  I  learned  that  the  sale  to  Mr.  Sim- 
mons was  in  the  interest  of  Mr.  Robert  Bonner  all  the  anxi- 
ety and  perturbation  of  spirit  that  had  naturally  resulted 
from  the  sale  vanished  as  if  by  magic,  for  I  knew  that  in 
Mr.  Bonner,  Rarus  had  acquired  an  owner  whose  fame  as 
the  purchaser  of  the  fastest  trotters  in  the  world  was  ac- 
companied by  the  knowledge  that  every  horse  belonging  to 
him  received  during  his  lifetime  as  good  care  as  could  be 
given  any  human  being.  I  knew  that  as  long  as  Rarus 
might  live  it  would  always  be  his  portion  to  receive  from 
experienced  grooms  every  attention  that  was  necessary  for 
his  well-being  and  comfort.  I  knew  that  the  bodily  ail- 
ments that  were  to  come  Avith  increasing  age  would  be  at- 
tended to  in  the  most  skillful  manner,  and  that  under  no 
circumstance  would  he  be  x^^^rted  with,  for  it  is  a  rule  of 
Mr.  Bonner's  life  that  no  one  of  the  famous  horses  that  he 
owns  shall  be  sold;  and  the  history  of  Dexter,  Pocahontas, 
and  the  two  old  mares — about  the  first  fast  pair  that  Mr. 
Bonner  ever  owned,  Lady  Palmer  and  Flatbush  Maid — had 
told  this  to  the  world.  Not  alone  where  the  English  lan- 
guage is  s^Doken  or  written,  but  wherever  the  blooded 
liorse  is  an  object  of  interest,  the  name  of  Robert  Bonner  is 
a  familiar  one,  and  a  book  of  this  kind  would  be  imcomplete 
without  more  than  incidental  reference  to  him,  since  no 
other  name  is  so  intimately  and  x>rominently  associated 
with  the  American  trotter  as  his.  A  man  of  rare  intellect- 
ual attainments  and  business  ability,  which  is  demonstrated 
by  the  accumulation  of  a  large  fortune  obtained  in  a  strictly 
legitimate  manner,  with  a  mind  that  probes  to  its  utter- 
most depths  any  subject  worth  taking  under  consideration, 
Mr.  Bonner  has  given  to  trotting  horses  more  mental  effort 
than  any  other  man  in  the  world. 

Beginning  thirty  years  ago,  he  purchased  his  first  trot- 
ter, an  animal  that  could  step  in  about  three  mijiutes,  in 
obedience  to  the  directions  of  his  physician,  who  advised 
him  to  try  driving  for  his  health.     From  that  day  to  this, 


138  LIFE   WITH   THE   TROTTEES. 

Mr.  Bonner  has  l^een  an  enthusiastic  road-rider,  and  in  the 
pair  of  mares  mentioned  above,  he  had  the  first  team  capa- 
ble of  trotting  a  mile  to  pole  better  than  2:30,  and  of  doing 
two  miles  in  a  fraction  over  five  minutes.  From  this  to  the 
j)urcliase  of  l>exter  for  $35,000,  an  amount  that  seemed  fab- 
ulous at  the  time,  Mr.  Bonner  s  name  was  famous,  and  the 
morning  after  the  sale  above  referred  to  was  made,  it  was 
flashed  all  over  the  world  as  that  of  the  owner  of  the  fastest 
trotter  that  had  ever  been  seen.  Then  came  in  rapid  suc- 
cession the  addition  to  his  x^rivate  stable  of  so  many  noted 
horses  that  a  list  of  them  would  be  wearisome,  and  after  all 
these  j)urcliases  the  acquirement  of  Rarus  for  $36,000. 
After  Rarns  had  been  retired  from  the  turf,  St.  Julien  was 
the  first  horse  to  beat  his  record;  then  came  Maud  S.,  and 
she  had  lowered  the  trotting  record  to  2:09^,  people  said  there 
was  one  horse,  the  best  in  the  land,  that  Mr,  Bonner  could 
not  own,  because  she  was  the  proj^erty  of  a  man  many  times 
a  millionaire,  the  late  Wm.  H.  Vanderbilt.  But  strangely 
enough  it  came  about  that  Mr.  Bonner  eventually  did 
own  Maud  S.,  and  when  he  became  her  owner  it  was  through 
the  wish  of  Mr.  Vanderbilt,  and  not  only  for  the  reason 
that  Mr.  Bonner  was  his  personal  friend,  but  that,  as  in  the 
case  of  Mr.  Conklin  and  Rarus,  it  was  his  wish  that  the 
famous  daughter  of  Harold  should  become  the  j)roperty  of 
the  man  in  whose  possession  she  would  always*  be  guaran- 
teed a  life  of  ease,  so  long  as  she  might  live.  The  writer 
has  seen  an  autograph  letter  from  Mr,  Vanderbilt  to  Mr, 
Bonner  in  which  this  sentiment  is  given  words,  and  he 
knows  that  Mr.  Vanderbilt' s  expression  of  his  feelings  in 
the  case  of  Maud  S.,  and  his  reason  for  selling  her  were  as 
much  a  pleasure  to  Mr.  Bonner  as  was  the  ownership  of  the 
fastest  trotter  the  world  had  ever  seen,  I  have  often  heard 
people  bewailing  the  fact  that  Mr.  Bonner  bought  uj)  and 
retired  from  the  turf  the  best  trotters  in  the  world,  but  it 
has  always  seemed  to  me  that  his  action  in  this  regard  was 
a  positive  blessing  to  the  animals,  as  it  not  only  insured 
their  comfort  for  life,  but  also  jprevented  the  necessity  of 


LIFE   WITH   THE  TROTTERS.  139 

their  being  contestants  in  races  long  after  their  powers  were 
on  the  wane,  causing  them  to  suffer  defeat  fi'om  animals 
whom  in  their  prime  they  could  easily  have  left  behind. 
Another  reason  why  Mr.  Bonner  is  a  benefactor  to  the  turf 
lies  in  the  fact  that  his  willingness  to  buy,  no  matter  at  what 
price,  the  fastest  horse  in  the  world  makes  a  constant  mar- 
ket at  top  figures  for  animals  that  would  otherwise  be 
white  elephants  on  the  hands  of  their  owners — something 
for  which  an  adequate  value  could  never  be  obtained.  Mr. 
Robert  Bonner,  above  all  men,  has  been  the  friend,  patron, 
and  in  every  sense  the  benefactor  of  horse  breeders,  horse 
drivers,  and  horses  themselves. 

But  to  return  to  Rarus  and  his  sale.  After  leaving  the 
horse  in  the  stable,  Mr.  Conklin,  Mr.  Simmons,  Mr.  David 
Bonner,  and  myself,  adjourned  to  the  Hoffman  House,  where 
the  money  was  paid  over  to  Mr.  Conklin.  I  told  Mr.  David 
Bonner  that  I  had  left  all  of  Rarus' s  effects,  wagons,  etc., 
at  the  stable  with  him,  with  the  exception  of  one  ]3air  of 
blankets  that  I  had  promised  Mr.  Conklin,  and  wished  he 
would  say  to  Mr.  RoV)ert  Bonner  that  he  was  entitled  to 
them  all,  Ibut  that,  if  he  did  not  wish  to  keep  them,  he  could 
send  me  word,  and  I  would  come  and  take  them  away.  The 
next  day,  I  received  a  note  from  Mr.  Robert  Bonner,  asking 
me  to  call  at  his  office,  which  I  did.  He  thanked  me  for  my 
attention  in  sending  him  Rarus' s  traps;  told  me  he  would  be 
glad  to  keex3  them,  and  insisted  on  giving  me  an  order  to 
duplicate  them  new  from  a  shop  at  his  expense.  This  I 
declined  to  accept,  for  the  reason  that  I  believed  any  man, 
who  had  given  $36,000  for  a  horse,  was  entitled  to  his  be- 
longings, and  so  said.  Mr.  Bonner  told  me  that  he  should 
send  Rarus  to  his  farm  in  a  day  or  two,  and  invited  me  up 
there  to  see  Rarus  in  his  new  home.  I  accepted  the  invita- 
tion, and  the  pleasing  remembrance  of  that  day,  and  the 
valuable  hints  that  I  received  in  the  way  of  training  horses, 
are  still  fresh  in  my  mind.  I  there  took  my  last  ride  behind 
Rarus,  driving  him  a  mile  in  2:16^,  over  Mr,  Bonner's  track, 
and  left  liim  with  feelings  of  regret. 

10 


140  LIFE   WITH   THE   TKOTTERS. 

I  now  come  to  what  might  be  termed  the  x)ersonal  history 
of  Rarns;  and,  while  it  seems  to  me  that  his  career  in  my 
hands  had  been  at  the  least  fairly  successfnl,  I  feel  like  tak- 
ing but  a  small  part  of  the  credit  for  his  snccess  to  myself. 
First  and  foremost,  he  was  a  grand  horse  when  he  came  into 
my  hands,  and  his  owner,  Mr.  Conklin,  was  a  man  that  I 
think  the  owner  of  any  trotting  horse  conld  well  pattern 
after.  In  the  first  place,  he  had  what  people  wonld  call  a 
good  deal  of  horse  sense.  In  the  second  place,  when  he  gave 
his  horse  to  me  to  drive,  his  contract  extended  for  four 
months.  At  the  end  of  that  time,  he  renewed  his  contract 
with  me,  and  said  to  me,  ' '  S23lan,  as  long  as  I  own  Rarns, 
he  is  your  horse  to  do  with  in  every  way,  shape,  or  manner 
as  you  see  fit.  'No  one  shall  ever  criticise  you  or  your  actions 
to  me.  I  will  do  nothing  in  connection  with  the  horse  with- 
out your  freewill  and  consent.  Take  your  time,  and  do  what 
you  can  with  him,  whether  it  be  in  one,  two,  three,  or  four 
years.  The  greatest  pleasure  that  I  could  have  with  that 
horse  would  be  to  see  him  beat  the  best  record."  When  he 
told  me  that,  I  knew  and  believed  that  he  meatit  exactly 
what  he  sa  id.  Few  people  imagine  how  the  trainers  of  horses 
are  annoyed  by  outsiders  running  to  owners  and  criticising 
the  actions  of  the  drivers.  It  is  an  easy  matter  for  a  gentle- 
man who  never  drove  a  trotter  a  step  in  his  life,  and  who 
never  did  more  than  to  sit  up  in  the  grand  stand  in  a  shady 
l)lace,  to  say  to  the  owner  of  a  horse  how  his  driver  should 
handle  him,  but  if  that  same  critic  were  asked  to  drive  in  a 
race,  he  would  have  to  be  tied  in  the  sulky,  in  order  to  in- 
sure his  appearance  when  the  horse  was  come  uijder  the 
wire.  If  I  might  be  permitted  here  to  give  a  little  advice  to 
owners,  it  would  be:  If  you  get  a  trotter,  pick  out  the  man 
you  think  is  the  best  driver  and  trainer  in  the  world,  give 
him  your  horse,  and  treat  him  as  Mr.  Conklin  did  me,  and, 
if  you  do  not  get  that  man's  best  efforts,  I  will  be  more  mis- 
taken than  I  have  been  in  horse-racing  matters  in  a  long 
while. 

The  next  factor  in  my  success  with  this  horse,  was,  I  be- 


LIFE   WITH   THE   TKOTTERS.  141 

lieve,  the  men  that  rubbed  him  for  me.  The  first  was  Barney 
Stanford,  who  was  a  pupil  of  my  old  friend  Mace,  and  learned 
the  art  of  caring  for  a  horse  as  well  as  it  was  possible  for 
any  man  to  acquire  it.  After  having  done  this  he  was  will- 
ing to  give  his  emj)loyer  his  best  sei'vices  at  all  times.  Bar- 
ney came  to  rub  Rams  in  the  fall  of  1876,  and  remained  with 
me  until  the  day  I  sold  the  horse.  There  was  a  good  deal  to 
Barney  besides  his  ability  as  a  horse  rubber.  He  was  digni- 
fied and  obliging  to  everyone,  attractive  in  his  X)ersonal  ap- 
pearance, always  dressed  in  the  latest  fashion,  and  possessed 
the  taciturnity  that  is  especially  commendable  in  men  who 
have  to  do  with  trotting  horses.  In  habits  he  was  first  class  ; 
he  always  managed  to  get  a  little  money  on  all  the  good  things 
that  came  off  in  the  neighborhood,  and  took  as  much  pride 
in  Rarus  as  I  did.  In  attending  to  a  horse  who  was  famous, 
it  means  that  the  head  rubber  must  be,  on  every  da}^  of  the 
trotting  season,  i)repared  to  act  as  a  reception  committee  to 
thousands  of  jpeople,  many  of  whom  have  apx:)arently  no 
idea  of  the  responsibilities  that  are  involved  in  the  care  of  such 
an  animal.  In,  dealing  with  over-enthusiastic  folks,  Barney 
disx)layed  all  the  watchfulness  of  a  Vidocq  and  the  diplo- 
macy of  a  Talleyrand,  He  is  now  a  successful  trainer  on  his 
own  account  at  Detroit,  and  I  want  to  say  that  any  man  who 
gives  Barney  Stanford  a  horse  to  train  and  drive  will  place 
him  in  the  hands  of  a  cajpable,  honest,  industrious,  and  pains- 
taking man. 

The  other  boy's  name  was  Dave  Colross.  He  came  to  helj) 
Barney  take  care  of  Rarus  in  the  spring  of  1878.  When  he 
applied  for  the  position  he  looked  as  though  he  might  have 
been  measuring  tape  in  some  dry -goods  store.  I  asked  him 
something  about  his  ability  in  the  care  of  a  trotting  horse, 
and  he  told  me  that  Mr.  Morrell  Higbie,  his  former  employer, 
had  said  he  was  the  best  rubber  he  ever  saw,  a  statement 
which  I  wish  to  indorse.  He  remained  with  me  until  the 
day  Rarus  was  sold,  and  afterward  rubbed  for  me  the  imcer 
Johnston,  in  which  capacity  I  shall  have  something  further 
to  say  concerning  him. 


142  LIFE  WITH  THE  TROTTERS. 

In  disi30sition,  Rarus  was  a  brave  horse,  not  much  in- 
clined to  be  affectionate,  but,  at  the  same  time,  not  a  vicious 
animal.  I  never  saw  anyone  that  he  seemed  very  fond  of, 
except  Mr.  Conklin,  Dave,  and  the  dog  Jimmy,  without 
some  mention  of  whom  no  history  of  Rarus  would 
be  complete.  This  dog  was  a  Scotch  terrier  that  was 
presented  to  me  in  San  Francisco  by  a  fireman  when 
he  was  a  youngster  of  about  two  months.  I  took  him 
to  the  track  and  gave  him  to  Dave,  who  advised  that 
he  be  put  in  Rarus' s  stable.  I  cautioned  Dave  about 
the  pup,  as  I  had  seen  Rarus  make  the  fur  fly  from 
one  or  two  dogs,  and  told  him  that  he  might  not  have 
any  dog,  unless  he  iDut  him  in  a  safe  place.  In  a  few  days 
I  asked  about  him,  and  he  told  me  that  Rarus  and  the  dog 
had  got  to  be  great  friends.  That  appeared  rather  strange 
to  me,  as,  while  I  had  always  treated  Rarus  very  kindly, 
he  was  never  disposed  to  make  friends  with  me.  Inax)pear- 
ance  this  dog  was  a  small,  wiiy -haired  terrier  weighing 
about  fifteen  pounds,  and  possessed  of  almost  human  intel- 
ligence. The  admiration  and  love  that  this  dog  and  horse 
had  for  each  other  equaled  anything  that  I  have  ever  seen 
in  the  human  family.  Not  onh"  A\ere  they  extremely  fond 
of  each  other,  but  they  showed  their  affection  plainly  as  did 
ever  a  man  for  a  woman.  AVe  never  took  any  j^ains  to 
teach  the  dog  anj'thing  about  the  horse.  Everything  he 
knew  came  to  him  by  his  own  patience.  From  the  time  I 
took  him  to  the  stable  a  pup,  until  I  sold  Rarus,  they  were 
never  separated  an  hour.  We  once  left  the  dog  in  the  stall 
while  we  took  the  liorse  to  the  blacksmith  shop,  and  when 
we  came  back  we  found  he  had  made  havoc  with  everything 
there  was  in  there,  trying  to  get  out,  while  the  horse,  dur- 
ing the  entire  journey,  was  uneasy,  restless,  and  in  general 
acted  as  bad  as  the  dog  did.  Dave  remarked  that  he 
thought  we  had  better  keep  the  horse  and  dog  together  after 
that.  When  Rarus  went  to  the  track  to  work  or  trot,  the 
dog  would  follow  Dave  around  and  sit  by  the  gate  at  his 
side,  watching  Rarus  wiih  as  much  interest  as  Dave  did. 


LIFE   WITH   THE  TKOTTEES.  143 

Wlien  the  horse  returned  to  the  stable  after  a  heat,  and  was 
unchecked,  the  dog  would  walk  up  and  climb  uj)  on  his  for- 
ward legs,  and  kiss  him,  the  horse  always  bending  his  head 
down  to  receive  his  caress.  In  the  stable,  after  work  was 
over,  Jim  and  the  horse  would  often  frolic  like  two  boys. 
If  the  horse  laid  down,  Jim  would  climb  on  his  back,  and  in 
that  way  soon  learned  to  ride  him,  and  whenever  I  led  Rarus 
out  to  show  him  to  the  public,  Jim  invariably  knew  what  it 
meant,  and  enhanced  the  value  of  the  performance  by  the 
manner  in  which  he  would  get  on  the  horse's  back.  On 
these  occasions,  the  horse  was  shown  to  halter,  and  Jimmy, 
who  had  learned  to  distinghish  such  events  from  those  in 
which  the  sulky  was  used,  would  follow  Barney  and  Rarus 
out  on  the  quarter  stretch,  and  then,  when  the  halt  was 
made  in  front  of  the  grand  stand,  Barney  would  stoop  down, 
and,  in  a  flash,  Jimmy  would  jump  on  his  back,  run  up  his 
shouldei',  from  there  leap  on  the  horse' s  back,  and  there  he 
would  stand,  his  head  high  in  the  air,  and  his  tail  out  stiff 
behind,  barking  furiously  at  the  people.  He  seemed  to 
know  that  he  was  as  much  a  part  of  the  show  as  the  horse, 
and  apparently  took  great  delight  in  attracting  attention  to 
himself.  I  had  several  temx)ting  offers  for  Jim  in  the  way 
of  cash,  but  such  a  thing  as  X3arting  with  him  never  entered 
my  mind.  When  Rarus  was  sold  to  Mr.  Bonner,  Jimmy 
was  not  included  in  the  bill  of  sale,  but  I  felt  that  Rarus 
belonged  to  Jimmy  and  Jimmy  to  Rarus.  After  they  both 
became  the  properly  of  Mr.  Bonner,  the  affection  of  the  dog 
and  the  horse  for  each  other  never  abated,  and  this  was  well 
illustrated  on  one  occasion.  In  Mr.  Bonner's  do^vn-town 
stable  was  a  bull  terrier,  a  rather  savage  fellow,  who  had 
the  run  of  the  place,  and  naturally  wanted  to  be  boss. 
Jimmy,  who  was  brave  to  a  fault,  attacked  the  bull  terrier 
one  day,  and  the  result  was  that  he  was  soon  knocked  out. 
When  his  yelps  reached  Rarus,  whose  stall  was  adjacent, 
the  old  horse  made  a  break  for  the  center  of  the  barn,  and 
had  he  not  been  restrained,  would  have  made  short  work  of 
the  bull  dog.      Mr.  Bonner  was  much  impressed  with  this 


144  LiFi:  WITH  the   itiotteu!-;. 

incident,  and  afterward  related  it  to  the  writer  as  evidence 
of  how  strong  the  bond  of  affection  between  these  two  ani- 
mals was. 

When  I  commenced  to  drive  Rarns,  I  liad  some  trouble 
in  getting  a  sulky  to  which  I  could  hook  him  far  enough 
away  so  that  he  would  not  hit  his  hocks.  While  he  did 
not  have  excessive  action,  when  he  was  strung  out  at  his 
best  clip  he  measured  a  good  deal  from  end  to  end.  After 
several  experiments,  T.  H.  Brown,  the  sulky  builder  of 
Chicago,  made  him  the  first  sulky  that  M^as  really  a  success. 
It  was  tlie  first  one  that  I  ever  saw  with  an  arched  axle, 
which  peculiarity  of  construction  enabled  the  horse  to  be 
hooked  close  and  still  avoid  any  contact  with  the  vehicle. 
What  boots  Rarus  Avore  I  had  made  of  the  very  lightest 
material.  I  used  them  as  a  preventive  more  than  from 
actual  need,  as  his  gait  was  perfection,  and  I  think  a  man 
could  have  driven  him  for  years  and  never  have  him  hit 
himself.  I  drove  him  with  an  open  bridle,  and  easy  snaffle 
bit,  an  over-check  and  check  bit.  I  used  long  martingales. 
Rarus  was  the  most  perfectly  broken  horse  and  had 
the  best  mouth  I  ever  saw.  No  matter  how  high  the 
rate  of  speed  or  how  close  the  contest,  with  a  sim- 
ple word  of  mouth  and  the  least  shifting  of  the  bit, 
a  man  was  sure  to  attract  his  attention  and  meet  a 
response  in  any  way  that  he  wished.  A  great  many  horses 
have  to  be  taken  hold  of  to  square  them  and  get  them  into 
their  stride.  Not  so  with  Rarus.  No  matter  how  slow  yon 
Jogged  him  he  went  with  the  same  perfect  motion  he  had  at 
a  high  rate  of  speed.  I  never  saw  him  hitch  or  hobble  going 
either  slow  or  fast.  He  was  a  good  walker,  and  a  pleasant 
horse  at  road  gaits,  and  it  seemed  to  make  less  difference  in 
his  effort  whether  he  was  going  at  a  three-minute  or  2:15 
gait  than  with  any  other  horse  I  ever  saw.  If  he  had  got  up 
to  2:40  gait,  you  could  put  him  to  his  top  speed  in  a  very  few 
revolutions.  A  great  many  people  imagine  that  he  was  not  a 
very  fast  scorer.  That  arose  from  the  fact  that  I  knew  he  could 
Avin  and  always  let  him  go  away  at  a  moderate  pace.  Some- 


LIFE   WITH   THE   TROTTERS.  145 

times  I  would  work  him  out  with  a  runner,  and  when  we 
turned  around  about  150  yards  from  the  judges'  stand, 
Barney  would  have  turned  the  runner  loose  at  full  tilt  by 
the  time  we  reached  the  wire.  In  carrying  Rarus  about  he 
never  seemed  to  be  tired.  When  we  went  to  California  and 
all  the  other  horses  would  act  as  though  they  would  like  to 
be  in  their  little  beds,  Rarus  would  be  up  and  ready  to  kick 
the  stall  down.  He  knew  as  well  when  the  car  pulled  up 
to  the  x)latform  as  did  one  of  the  boys,  and  often  gave  us  a 
good  deal  of  trouble  and  fear  lest  he  might  hurt  himself  in 
charging  about.  I  never  knew  him  to  miss  a  feed  of  any 
kind  while  I  had  him.  His  appetite  was  something  won- 
derful. No  matter  how  long  the  trip  or  how  hard  the  race 
he  was  always  ready  for  his  meals.  This  was  something 
very  remarkable,  as  few  horses  go  through  a  serious  cam- 
paign without  sometimes  losing  their  ax)petites. 


CHAPTER  YI, 

The  pacer  Johnston,  and  the  manner  in  which  he  was  trained  to  beat  all  the 
records — A  nervous,  fretful  horse  that  would  not  feed  well — Treatment  at 
Cincinnati  during  the  winter  months — Slow  work  in  the  spring — Speed 
comes  gradually— Dave  Colross  turns  up  in  the  nick  of  time,  and  takes 
care  of  the  horse — A  mile  in  2:10  at  Milwaukee,  and  then  2:06^4^  at  Chi- 
cago— Mattie  Hunter,  Sweetser,  Gem,  and  other  famous  pacers. 

I  now  come  to  the  consideration  of  tlie  fastest  pacer  that 
the  world  has  ever  seen,  and  to  whom  I  gave  his  best  record. 
I  refer  to  the  bay  gelding  Johnston — record,  2:00^. 

This  horse  was  bred  near  Berlin,  Wis. ,  and  was  sired  by 
a  horse  named  Bashaw  Golddust.  His  breeder  was  a  Ger- 
man farmer,  and,  when  the  colt  was  fonr  yeai  s  old,  he  sold  a 
half  interest  in  him  to  C.  M.  Mather,  a  banker  of  Berlin,  for 
$350.  The  following  summer  the  horse  was  taken  to  Chi- 
cago by  a  local  driver  named  Bassett  for  the  purpose  of 
sale,  the  price  asked  for  him  being  $5,000.  He  was  driven 
a  number  of  miles  better  than  2:20  while  in  Chicago,  the 
best  exhibition  being  2:15f .  No  sale  was  made  and  in  the 
fall  the  horse  was  sent  home.  During  the  following  winter 
E.  H.  Smith  of  Milwaukee  went  to  Berlin  and  bought  a 
controlling  half  interest  in  Johnston,  paying  therefor  $5,000, 
and  a  few  weeks  later  the  horse  was  sent  to  Chicago  and 
placed  in  the  stable  of  Peter  V.  Johnston,  a  well-known 
driver,  after  whom  he  was  named.  The  horse  had  previously 
been  called  Charley  M. ,  and  at  the  time  of  the  change  of  name 
he  was  entered  under  that  name  for  several  events,  but  had 
never  started  in  a  race  for  money.  Johnston  drove  him  a 
number  of  races  tlirough  the  Michigan  circuit,  winning  them 
all,  and  came  back  to  Chicago,  where  he  won  a  purse  and 
race,  reducing  his  record  to  2:13.      In  the  first  heat  of  this 

(146) 


LIFE   WITH   THE   TROTTERS.  147 

race,  which  was  the  fastest,  he  distanced  Billy  S.  and  Eddie 
D. ,  and  in  the  second  Gurgle  was  behind  the  flag  at  the  finish. 
On  October  9,  of  the  same  year  Johnston  i^aced  a  mile  in  2:10 
over  the  Chicago  track,  beating  the  then  best  pacing  record 
of  2:11|,  which  was  previously  credited  to  both  himself  and 
Little  Brown  Jug. 

At  this  time  I  was  training  Commodore  Kittson's  stable 
of  pacers  and  trotters.  The  Commodore  was  api^roached 
by  the  owner  of  Johnston  to  buy  that  horse.  In  an  inter- 
view with  Mr.  Kittson  he  told  me  that  if  I  thought  Johnston 
was  capable  of  beating  his  record  he  would  like  very  much 
to  own  him.  He  said  he  mshed  I  would  investigate  the 
matter  and  give  him  my  opinion.  At  this  time  Johnston 
was  rather  a  delicate -looldng  horse,  and  I,  with  many  other 
people,  had  fears  about  his  staying  abilities.  I  saw  his 
owners  and  they  arranged  to  drive  him  three  heats  for  me. 
When  the  day  for  the  trial  came  it  was  raining.  Finally, 
on  the  23d  of  the  month,  the  track  was  fairly  safe,  but 
not  at  all  fast.  I  asked  Mr.  Johnston  to  drive  the  pacer 
three  heats,  twenty  minutes  apart,  and  not  to  punish  him  in 
any  one  of  them.  I  figured  for  myself  how  much  slow  the 
track  was,  and  then  took  into  consideration  the  fact  that 
the  horse  had  been  interfered  with  in  his  training.  In  this 
trial  Johnston  went  in  2:14,  2:15^,  2:15|.  That  satisfied  me 
that  he  was  game.  I  thought  any  horse  that  would  pace 
the  first  mile  in  2:14  and  then  finish  the  third  one  in 
2:15|  had  courage  enough,  and  went  home  very  much  pleased 
with  the  perfoiTQance,  which,  together  with  his  mile  in  2:10, 
convinced  me  that  he  had  a  first-class  chance  to  make  a  very 
fast  record.  I  reported  the  facts  to  Mr.  Kittson  and  told 
him  I  thought,  without  doubt,  Johnston  would  beat  every 
pacing  record  in  the  world.  On  the  strength  of  that  recom- 
mendation Mr.  Kittson  gave  $20,000  for  the  horse  and 
placed  him  in  my  hands,  with  the  understanding  that  he 
would  be  trained  expressly  to  go  a  fast  mile. 

When  Johnston  arrived  at  my  stable  I  found  him  very 
low  in  flesh   from  the  fact  of    his  having  been   very  sick 


148  LIFE    WITH   THE   TROTTERS. 

through  the  middle  of  the  season.  His  ajopetite  was  poor, 
and  he  seemed  nervous  and  irritable  with  strangers  or  at 
noise  of  any  kind.  My  first  idea  Avas  to  take  him  to  Cali- 
fornia, and  winter  him  there,  thinking  the  warm  climate 
and  plenty  of  grass  would  be  beneficial.  I  finally  decided, 
however,  to  take  him  to  Chester  Park,  Cincinnati,  my  reason 
for  selecting  that  place  being  that  I  had  been  there  the 
previous  winter  with  my  horses  and  found  it  one  of  the 
most  comfortable  places  in  winter  there  is  in  the  northern 
country.  On  reaching  Cincinnati  with  Johnston,  I  called 
in  a  veterinary,  and  had  the  horse  examined.  The  doctor 
23rescribed  some  gentle  physics  and  tonics,  and  suggested 
that  he  be  turned  out  in  a  field  of  grass  whenever  the 
weather  permitted.  I  took  off  his  shoes  and  started  on  this 
treatment  immediately.  It  was  quite  a  Avhile  before  John- 
ston showed  any  improvement  in  his  condition  or  ai)petite, 
but  after  being  on  the  grass  about  thirty  days,  I  saw  a  slight 
improvement.  The  veterinary  still  continued  his  tonic  treat- 
ment and  gave  him  some  more  medicine  for  his  blood,  which 
he  decided  was  out  of  order,  from  the  effects  of  his  last  year' s 
illness.  About  the  first  of  January  the  horse  commenced  to 
put  on  fiesli.  I  had  a  large  paddock  built  for  him,  and  every 
day,  unless  there  was  a  storm,  gave  him  a  run  of  about  thirty 
minutes  in  it.  By  this  time  he  had  got  to  be  a  good-feeling 
horse  and  took  a  great  deal  of  exercise.  His  appetite  kept 
increasing  and  I  gradually  added  to  his  allowance  of  food. 
Up  to  this  time  I  kept  him  in  a  comfortable  stall  with  plenty 
of  bedding  and  moderate  clothing.  If  the  thermometer  fell 
I  increased  his  clothing,  and  immediately  reduced  it  when 
the  weather  moderated. 

About  this  time  we  had  a  good  fall  of  snow  and  I  had 
a  boy  lead  Johnston,  by  the  side  of  a  saddle  horse  two  or 
three  miles  on  the  track  every  day.  I  kept  his  feet  nicely 
rounded  off,  but  had  no  shoes  on  him.  I  followed  this  treat- 
ment until  the  first  of  March,  by  which  time  he  had  grown 
and  filled  out  into  a  very  handsome  horse,  and  weighed  a 
hundred  jjounds  more  than  he  did  in  the  fall  of  the  year. 


LIFE   WITH   THE   TROTTEES.  149 

which  is  a  good  deal  of  flesh  for  a  horse  to  put  on  in  that 
sj)ace  of  time.  Besides  looking  to  his  feet  and  exercise 
through  the  winter  I  studied  Jolmston  in  other  ways,  and 
tried  to  learn  his  disposition,  temperament,  etc.  I  noticed 
that  he  was  a  good  deal  inclined  to  be  nervous  and  fretful, 
and  very  much  afraid  of  strangers,  and,  if  you  i)ut  him  in  a 
stall  where  anyone  was  working  round  he  acted  a  good  deal 
like  a  wild  animal.  If  he  was  feeding,  and  a  stranger  stepped 
into  his  stall  he  would  walk  away  from  his  feed  and  j)er- 
haps  not  go  near  it  again.  The  result  of  this  observation, 
together  with  some  experience  I  had  in  training  Rarus  to  go 
fast  miles,  was  my  determining  on  the  following  plan:  The 
first  of  March  I  took  Johnston  up  and  had  him  clipped. 
There  is  a  great  difference  of  opinion  in  regard  to  clii)ping 
horses.  My  experience,  after  having  tried  it  for  years,  is 
that  in  training  a  horse  in  a  cold  climate  in  the  spring  of 
the  year  clipping  is  a  very  im^Dortant  thing  to  do.  Before 
the  horse  sheds  his  coat,  if  you  exercise  him  enough  to  warm 
him,  he  will  be  sure  to  reduce  himself  in  flesh  more  than 
you  want  him  to.  With  a  horse  like  Johnston,  that  is 
inclined  to  be  soft,  before  you  could  get  his  legs  in  order, 
the  flesh  would  be  all  off  him,  and  I  would  advise  that  in 
the  majority  of  cases  it  is  best  to  clip  a  trotter  when  he  is 
in  training,  when  the  spring  begins. 

I  had  Johnston  shod  with  about  fourteen-ounce  shoes  in 
front,  and  seven-ounce  ones  behind,  and  started  in  myself  to 
jog  him  and  superintend  everything  about  him.  I  lived  within 
about  sixty  yards  of  his  stable,  so  that  I  think  there  was  not 
much  done  that  I  did  not  see.  I  gave  him,  through  the 
month  of  March,  from  six  to  eight  miles  a  day,  when  the 
weather  would  permit,  in  the  way  of  moderate  work  on  the 
road,  to  a  cart  that  weighed  about  200  j)ounds.  He  had  at  this 
time  about  eight  quarts  of  oats  a  day,  with  plenty  of  hay. 
He  appeared  to  do  well  all  the  while.  The  flesh  hardened 
on  him  and  he  seemed  in  the  best  of  spirits.  By  the  first  of 
April  the  track  was  in  good  order  and  I  commenced  to  give 
Johnston  less  jogging  on  the  road,  and  moderate  work  on 


150  LIFE   WITH   THE   TIJOTTEUS. 

the  track,  never  better  than  a  three-minute  gait,  and  after 
a  couple  of  weeks  of  that  I  began  to  drive  him  a  great 
many  slow  miles  in  from  3:00  to  2:50,  kept  all  the  flesh 
on  him  that  I  could,  was  very  careful  about  clothing  him, 
and  did  not  blanket  or  scrape  him  in  any  way.  I  gradually 
increased  his  feed  to  about  ten  quarts  a  day.  He  seemed  to 
be  ary  strong  on  his  legs  but  acted  as  though  he  did  not 
have  much  sjoeed.  I  had,  by  this  time,  increased  the  work 
to  about  a  2:35  gait,  and  would  drive  him  Ave  or  six  heats  a 
day  about  t^^^ce  a  week  in  from  2:50  to  2:35.  I  did  not 
attempt  to  brush  him,  but  simply  rated  him  along,  and 
sometimes  would  drive  a  mile  and  a  half  or  two  miles  at  a 
2:40  clip.  In  this  way  I  got  his  flesh  very  hard  and  smooth, 
I  found  that  he  kept  to  his  feed  well,  but  still  continued  to 
act  as  though  he  did  not  have  much  speed.  The  latter  part 
of  May  I  commenced  to  reduce  the  number  of  miles  1  gave 
him,  shortened  his  work,  and  brushed  him  in  places  nearly 
as  fast  as  he  could  go.  Instead  of  giving  him  slow  miles,  I 
worked  him  oftener,  and  brushed  him  a  way  nearly  every 
day,  and,  in  a  short  time,  I  found  he  had  i)lenty  of  speed. 
He  had  by  this  time  worn  his  shoes  off  until  they  weighed 
about  twelve  ounces.  His  feet  were  naturally  rather  long  at 
the  toe  and  low  at  the  heel.  I  shortened  his  toes  all  I 
could  and  raised  his  heels. 

The  best  mile  I  drove  Johnston  over  Chester  Park  was 
in  about  2:25.  I  then  went  with  the  balance  of  my  horses 
through  Indiana  to  trot  them,  and  took  Johnston  with  me, 
but  as  the  tracks  there  were  all  half-mile  ones,  and  rather 
bad,  I  did  not  do  much  with  him  excepting  to  give  him 
plenty  of  slow  work,  and  nothing  in  the  way  of  trying  to 
speed  him.  I  gave  an  exhibition  with  him  at  Indianapolis, 
but  did  not  try  to  drive  fast  as  I  considered  the  track  un- 
safe for  that  sort  of  a  performance.  From  there  I  brought 
him  to  Chicago,  where  I  had  an  engagement  to  show  him, 
and,  one  week  before  this  race,  gave  him  five  heats,  twenty- 
five  minutes  apart,  commencing  at  2:25  and  gradually  im- 
proving the  pace,  so  that  his  last  heat  was  in  2:16.     I  drove 


LIFE   WITH   THE  TROTTERS.  151 

Mm  the  final  250  yards  in  the  last  heat  as  fast  as  I  could, 
and  thought  he  went  about  a  2:10  gait.  This  worlv  seemed 
to  draw  him  up  some,  and  also  impaired  his  appetite.  I  had 
found  that  in  shipping  Johnston  about  from  one  track  to 
another  he  became  more  nervous  and  irritable.  If  you  left 
him  long  in  the  stall  he  would  tramp  around  like  a  wild 
animal  and  get  himself  into  a  perspiration.  I  think  he  was 
the  most  nervous  horse  that  I  ever  saw.  If  anyone  went 
into  the  stall  next  to  his,  and  commenced  to  hammer  or 
make  anything  like  a  loud  noise,  he  would  try  to  climb  out 
of  the  window.  If  a  stranger  steiDped  into  his  stall  he 
would  give  a  snort  and  back  into  the  farthest  corner.  I 
made  up  my  mind  that  it  would  be  a  pretty  hard  job  to 
train  that  kind  of  a  horse  and  make  him  beat  2:10.  At  this 
time  I  changed  his  shoes,  putting  on  a  ten-ounce  shoe  in 
front,  with  leather  pads  and  a  si^onge  between  the  pads  and 
his  foot.  I  did  this  for  several  reasons — first,  I  wanted  to 
lighten  the  weight  on  him,  as  I  found  that  one  ounce  on  a 
pacer  tells  more  than  two  on  a  trotter,  and  in  shoeing  him 
with  a  very  light  shoe  I  was  afraid  that  the  track  might 
sting  his  feet  and  make  him  unsteady. 

When  the  day  of  his  trial  came  I  drove  him  in  2:11|. 
This  pleased  me,  as  the  day  and  track  were  not  favorable  for 
fast  time,  and  I  did  not  drive  him  a  real  scorching  mile.  I 
think  he  could  have  gone  that  day  a  mile  in  2:10.  From 
there  I  took  Johnston  to  Cleveland,  and  there  his  condition 
manifestly  imj)roved.  The  track  and  roads  were  fine,  there 
was  x)lenty  of  grass,  and  the  cool  nights  that  are  common  on 
the  shores  of  Lake  Erie  seemed  to  brace  the  pacer  up. 
I  gave  him  all  he  would  eat,  plenty  of  moderate  exercise, 
worked  him  out  about  twice  a  week  a  mile  and  repeat,  in 
about  2:20,  and  would  brush  him  the  last  part  of  the  mile. 
About  this  time  John  Campbell,  half  owner  of  the  pacer 
Richball,  that  had  a  mark  of  2:12|-,  was  very  anxious  to 
make  a  race  with  him  against  Johnston.  I  talked  the  mat- 
ter over  with  Mr.  Woodmansee,  Commodore  Kittson's  super- 
intendent, and  Dan  said  he  would  like  to  have  me  make 


152  LIFE   WITH   THE  TROTTERS. 

up  my  mind  whether  I  thought  it  a  good  scheme  to  make 
a  race  with  Richball  or  not  just  then,  and  if  I  thought  it 
was  he  would  accejit  the  challenge.  I  worked  Johnston  a 
little  way  on  Tuesday,  and  on  Wednesday  morning  went 
out  and  scored  him  down  seven  or  eight  times  and  sent  him 
a  mile  in  2:15,  going  both  halves  about  alike.  After  twenty 
minutes  I  scored  him  six  or  seven  times  more,  and  went  the 
journey  in  2:13J,  the  last  half  in  1:03|.  He  finished  strong 
and  good,  and  I  told  Mr.  Woodmansee  that  was  speed 
enough  to  go  against  any  horse  in  the  world.  He  took  my 
advice,  and  made  a  race  with  Richball,  to  come  off  over  the 
Chicago  track  later  on. 

From  Cleveland  we  went  to  Buffalo,  where  the  follow- 
ing week  we  paced  Johnston  in  a  race  that  had  been 
arranged  by  Mr.  C.  J.  Hamlin,  and  in  which  the  win- 
ner of  the  first  heat  went  to  the  stable,  and  the  win- 
ner of  each  successive  heat  then  retired,  until  three  heats 
had  been  trotted  or  jiaced.  Then  the  horse  having  made 
the  fastest  mile  was  entitled  to  first  money,  the  others 
taking  their  i)ositions  in  the  summary  according  to  the 
speed  they  had  shown.  Johnston  won  the  first  heat  and 
the  first  money  by  going  in  2:12.  I  could  have  driven  him 
faster,  but  carried  my  watch,  and  was  satisfied  that  2:12 
would  win  the  money.  The  following  w^eek  we  went  to 
Rochester.  All  this  time  I  had  as  rubbers  for  Johnston  two 
boys  that  was  I  dissatisfied  with,  and  often  wished  that  I 
might  secure  Dave  Colross,  the  boy  that  took  care  of  Rarus 
■for  me. 

The  morning  after  we  arrived  at  Rochester,  who  should 
walk  into  the  stable  but  Dave.  I  asked  him  what  he 
was  doing,  and  he  re]3lied  that  he  was  engaged  in  some 
business  in  town.  I  finally  asked  him  if  he  would  come 
and  rub  Johnston  for  me,  saying  that  if  he  would  I  would 
make  it  an  object  to  him.  I  told  him  that  I  was  very  anx- 
ious to  have  Johnston  beat  his  record  of  2:10,  and  thought 
he  could  do  so,  everything  being  favorable.  Dave  finally 
said  that  he  had  made  up  his  mind  to  never  rub  another 


LIFE   WITH   Tirp:  TROTTERS.  153 

horse,  but  to  oblige  me  he  would  come  and  stay  until  the 
end  of  the  season,  which  he  did;  and  I  want  to  say  here  that 
I  think  to  his  care  and  attention,  more  than  any  other  one 
thing,  is  due  the  fact  of  Johnston's  having  the  fastest 
record  of  any  trotter  or  pacer  in  the  world.  I  have  always 
said  that  Dave  deserved  as  much  credit,  if  not  more,  than 
I  did,  for  the  result  of  the  effort.  The  next  morning  Dave 
came  to  work;  I  told  him  all  I  knew  about  Johnston's  ijecul- 
iarities,  and  I  saw  right  away  that  the  boy  had  entered  into 
the  affair  with  his  whole  heart  and  soul.  The  first  thing  he 
did  was  to  get  a  dog  and  put  it  into  the  stall  with  the  horse, 
claiming  that  it  would  be  comj)any  for  him.  From  that  day 
on  Johnston  improved,  ate  more,  Avas  less  nervous  and  fret- 
ful, and,  in  fact,  did  better  in  every  way.  I  paced  him  two 
heats  over  the  Rochester  track,  the  second  one  of  which  he 
went  in  2:llf.  From  Rochester  we  returned  to  Chicago 
and  paced  a  match  against  Richball  over  the  "V^^est  Side 
track,  and  Johnston  beat  him  easily  in  three  straight  heats, 
the  time  being  2:13,  2:llf,  2:13J.  From  there  we  went  to 
Minneapolis,  and  j)aced  another  race  against  Richball,  a  mile 
and  repeat.  Johnston  won  the  first  heat  easily;  in  the  second 
heat  he  threw  a  boot,  and  Richball  beat  him;  but  in  the 
third  Johnston  won  the  race  without  an  effort.  At  Still- 
vvater  we  paced  our  last  race  against  Richball,  again  win- 
ning. About  this  time  Johnston  commenced  to  show  the 
form  and  speed  that  afterward  made  him  famous.  From 
Stillwater  we  went  to  Milwaukee  to  pace  an  exhibition. 
The  weather  was  not  very  favorable  and  the  track  was  far 
from  being  good.  But,  in  spite  of  this,  Johnston's  exhibi- 
tion was  so  satisfactory^ that  everyone  thought,  with  abetter 
day  and  track,  he  would  certainly  beat  his  record,  and  ar- 
ragements  were  thereupon  made  for  him  to  pace  the  follow- 
ing Aveek.  He  failed  to  beat  his  record,  but  tied  his  best 
mile,  going  in  2:10.  I  tokl  Mr.  Woodmansee  I  believed 
that,  with  anything  like  a  fair  day  and  a  good  track, 
Johnston  would  certainly  malve  the  fastest  record  that 
ever  was  heard  of.      He  thereupon  arranged  to  have  the 


154  LIFE   AVITH   THE   TKOTTEES. 

liorse  brought  to  the  West  Side  track  at  Chicago,  to  make 
a  grand  effort. 

At  this  time  Johnston  was  doing  as  well  as  I  could  wish. 
He  had,  to  a  great  extent  gotten  over  his  disposition 
to  be  nervous,  ate  heartily,  took  to  his  work  kindly,  and 
rested  well.  Dave  never  left  him  aloi^a  for  a  moment,  not 
even  to  go  and  get  his  meals.  He  had  them  brought  to  the 
horse's  stall,  and  ate  them  there.  He  sle^^t  there,  and  I 
never  saw  him  away  from  the  stall  all  this  time,  further 
than  to  go  to  the  i^ump.  After  his  horse  was  done  up  in  the 
morning,  Dave  would  go  inside  the  stall,  shut  the  door  and 
stay  there.  This  treatment  was  just  what  Johnston  Avanted, 
as,  Avith  Dave  and  the  dog  in  sight,  he  felt  contented  and 
lost  his  nervousness.  On  our  arrival  in  Chicago  we  found 
the  track  rather  heavy  from  recent  rains  and  set  to  woik  to 
try  and  put  it  in  first-class  condition,  which  we  succeeded 
in  doing  to  our  entire  satisfaction.  I  never  for  one  moment 
doubted  that  Johnston  would  go  a  grand  mile,  for  every- 
thing about  him  i:>leased  me.  At  this  time  I  had  him  shod 
with  a  shoe  and  pad  and  sponge  forward,  the  whole  weigh- 
ing nine  and  one-half  ounces,  with  a  five-ounce  shoe  behind. 
When  the  bell  rang  for  his  trial  I  never  saw  everything 
appear  to  be  in  better  shaj)e  for  fast  time.  The  day  was 
simply  perfect — warm,  with  plenty  of  sun  and  no  wind; 
the  track  as  fine  as  you  could  wish  for,  being  perfectl}^ 
smooth  and  not  too  hard.  I  gave  Johnston  four  slow  heats, 
twenty  minutes  apart,  before  the  trial,  commencing  M'ith  a 
mile  in  2:40,  winding  up  in  2:19,  the  last  half  in  1:07.  The 
reason  I  gave  him  these  slow  miles  was  that  I  wanted  to 
have  his  stomach  thoroughly  empty  before  making  his  effort. 
Johnston  was  a  horse  that  did  not  need  any  j^articular 
warming  up  to  thaw  him  out,  as  he  always  had  his  speed 
with  him,  and  was  not  tied  u^d  from  being  sore. 

In  talking  the  matter  over  with  Mr.  Woodmansee,  I  said 
that  I  was  sure  Johnston  would  beat  2:08.  My  idea  was  to 
drive  him  to  the  half  in  1:04  and  then  step  him  home  as 
well  as  he  could  go.     Mr.  Woodmansee  cautioned  me  not  to 


I.IFIO    WI'I'U   rUK   TKoTTEKS.  155 

try  to  do  too  luiifli  with  liiin,  for  tear  he  might  make  a 
break  and  spoil  it  all.  He  thought  that,  perhaps,  driving 
him  to  the  half-mile  pole  in  1:04  would  be  too  fast,  and 
make  him  sto^),  but  I  figured  that  the  Chicago  track  was  at 
least  two  seconds  faster  than  the  one  at  Mil waukee,  where  he 
paced  in2:lU,aiid  I  also  thought  that  that  effort  had  done  the 
horse  good.  I  told  Mr.  Woodmansee  I  was  sure  that  I  would 
be  safe  in  trying  to  drive  him  to  the  half-mile  pole  in  1:04. 
So  when  the  time  came  I  scored  Johnston  down  a  couple 
of  times  easily,  took  my  watch  in  my  hand,  and  brought 
him  to  the  stand  at  about  what  I  considered  a  2:08  gait,  got 
the  word  at  the  third  attem^^t,  and  went  the  first  eighth  of 
a  mile  in  just  sixteen  seconds.  I  never  clucked  or  spoke  to 
him  in  any  way,  he  simply  swinging  along  at  a  great  big 
open  gait,  as  though  he  w^as  out  for  exercise.  He  went  this 
clip  to  the  quarter  i^ole,  where  he  landed  in  thirty -two  sec- 
onds. The  same  even  stride  was  continued  down  the  back 
stretch,  and  I  timed  him  to  the  half-mile  pole  in  just  1:04. 
In  going  around  the  upper  turn,  I  jnilled  him  a  trifle  wide 
on  the  turn,  as  the  water  had  washed  the  track  out  a  little 
next  to  the  pole.  That  quarter  we  went,  by  my  watch,  in  31 J 
seconds.  I  had  not  yet  spoken  to  him,  but  he  seemingly 
increased  his  speed  from  the  half-mile  pole  on.  At  the 
three-quarter  pole  I  found  we  had  landed  in  1:35,  and  knew, 
from  tlie  ease  with  which  he  went  there,  that  he  was  bound 
to  beat  all  the  records  that  had  ever  been  made,  unless  he 
fell  down.  I  never  s2')oke  to  him  until  he  was  within  an 
eighth  of  a  mile  of  the  judges'  stand.  There  I  pulled  the 
bit  through  his  mouth  gently,  and  spoke  to  him  once.  He 
seemed  to  straighten  out  and  go  lower  to  the  ground,  and 
the  sulky  commenced  to  weave  a  little,  as  though  it  were 
hooked  to  an  express  train.  After  he  got  well  straight- 
ened out  into  his  stride  I  leaned  over  and  touched  him 
gently  witli  the  Avhip,  when  we  were  within  about  100  yards 
of  the  wire,  and  he  shot  out  at  a  rate  of  speed  that  I  never 
before  saw  any  horse  attain.     He  i)assed  the  stand  going 

better  than  a  two-minute  gait,  finishing  the  mile,  as  I  made 
11 


156  LIFE   V\  ITir    THE  TROTTEES. 

it  by  my  watcli,  in  2:06 J,  which  was  also  the  official  time, 
beating  the  best  racing  record  3|  seconds  and  setting  a 
mark  that,  to  this  day,  looks  a  good  way  off  to  any  jDacer  or 
trotter. 

It  so  happened  that  although  the  day  was  a  pleasant 
one  the  audience  was  not  large,  and  this  was  not  the  first 
time  that  a  great  harness  performance  has  been  made  with 
a  small  crowd  in  attendance,  as  a  few  years  previous  to  this 
when  Maud  S.  beat  all  the  trotting  records  by  going  a  mile 
in  2:10f  over  the  same  track,  there  was  hardly  a  corporal's 
guard  on  the  ground,  no  one  expecting  to  see  a  fast  mile. 
But  those  who  did  see  Johnston  make  this  performance 
were  mostly  j)i"^t'tical  horsemen  and  when  the  judges 
announced  the  time,  the  shout  that  went  up  made  uj)  in 
enthusiasm  Avhat  it  lacked  in  A^olume.  The  trial  did  not 
seem  to  distress  the  horse  in  the  least  and  I  am  positive 
that  he  could  have  gone  some  faster,  and  his  performance 
the  following  week  proves  to  me  conclusively  that  this  is  the 
case.  He  went  directly  from  Chicago  to  Lexington,  Ky., 
and,  being  detained  in  a  smash-up  on  the  train,  I  never  had 
a  chance  to  put  the  harness  on  him  until  he  came  out  to  pace 
for  the  money.  He  was  to  pace  for  a  purse  to  beat  the  best 
time  ever  made  over  the  Lexington  track,  and  won  by  going 
in  2:08,  jmcing  the  last  half  up  the  hill  in  1:02— a  perform- 
ance that  it  would  take  a  i^retty  fair  runner  hitched  to  a 
sulky  to  accomplish.  This  was  the  last  time  I  ever  drove 
Johnston,  as  my  connection  with  the  Kittson  stable  was  then 
severed. 

I  have  heard  a  great  many  people  say  that  J  ohnstr m  is  a 
soft  horse.  In  condition,  I  think  him  as  game  a  horse  as  I 
ever  saw,  and  by  long  odds  the  fastest  one.  Out  of  condi- 
tion, he  is  about  as  helpless  a  horse  as  can  be  imagined;  and 
that  is  not  the  case  with  Johnston  alone.  Some  of  the 
games t  horses  that  I  ever  saw  when  in  condition,  were  the 
most  helpless  when  out  of  form.  Rarus,  a  horse  whose 
stamina  and  courage  no  one  ever  doubted,  was  the  same. 
Wedgewood,  who  proved  liimself  to  be  possessed  of  as  much 


LIFE    WITH    THE   TROTTERS.  157 

bulldog  determination  as  any  horse  I  ever  saw  in  a  race, 
would  give  it  up,  when  short  of  work,  at  the  slightest  notice. 
I  have  been  told  that  game  chickens  will  run  away  quicker 
when  out  of  condition  than  a  dunghill  bird  will,  and  I  believe 
it  is  the  same  with  horses.  It  is  ni}^  idea  that  the  more 
finely  organized  and  bettei*  bred  a  horse  is  the  more  liable 
he  is  to  quit  when  out  of  (condition.  I  have  been  asked 
whether  I  thought  a  horse  that  could  go  in  2:06J  was  not 
more  finely  organized,  and  more  delicate  in  his  nervous  sys- 
tem than  one  that  could  not  go  a  mile  better  than  2:40.  I 
answer  yes.  I  think  a  high  nervous  organization  is  what 
makes  a  horse  go  a  mile  in  2: 06 J,  and  I  think,  further,  that 
it  requires  more  skill  to  drive  a  horse  a  mile  in  2:10,  pro- 
vided that  is  his  limit,  than  a  liorse  that  can  trot  in  2:30, 
pi'ovided  that  is  his  limit.  My  friend,  William  McGuigan, 
explains  this  by  saying  that  there  is  as  much  difference 
between  training  a  2:10  and  a  2:20  horse  as  there  is  between 
sharpening  a  razor  and  an  ordinary  jack-knife;  that  any  boy 
can  sharpen  a  jack-knife,  but  that  it  takes  a  barber  to  keep 
a  razor  in  oider. 

I  Lave  already  alluded  to  some  iDeculiarities  of  Johnston 
in  the  stable,  and  will  finish  by  stating  w^hat  boots,  etc.,  he 
wore.  I  used  on  him  a  very  light  knee  boot,  and  an  extra 
light  i)air  of  quarter  boots,  with  shin  boots  in  front,  and 
nothing  behind.  I  drove  him  with  an  overcheck,  and  open 
bridle,  and  a  snaffle  bit,  covered  with  rubber.  I  covered  his 
bit  because  of  Johnston's  having  such  a  tender  mouth  that 
he  seemed  afraid  to  take  liold  of  the  bit  enough  to  steady 
himself.  I  used  long  martingales  on  him,  and  checked  him 
moderately.  In  his  trial  he  pulled  a  forty-two  pound  sulky, 
and  I  weighed  153  pounds.  Johnston  was  a  very  steady 
horse.  I  think  he  never  broke  with  me  over  tljree  or  four 
times  in  his  work  or  racing.  After  everything  was  just 
right,  track,  etc.,  it  was  a  good,  safe  bet  that  he  Avould  never 
make  a  break. 

The  day  that  I  drove  Johnston  to  his  recoi-d  at  Chicago, 
was  a  sort  of  gala  occasion  in  my  career  as  a  driver  and 


158  LIFE   WITH    THE   TKOTTEKS. 

trainer,  and  what  took  place  that  afternoon  has  seemed,  both 
to  myself  and  m}'  friends,  as  the  best  exhibition  of  training 
and  driving  that  I  ever  gave,  as  it  included  the  tlriving  of 
a  pacer  n  mile  in  2:(>0J,  in  single  harness,  unaccompanied 
by  a  runner  or  other  incentive  to  effort;  the  reducing  of 
Fanny  Witherspoon's  record  to  2:1  G^,  and  driving  the  X)acing 
mare,  Minnie  R.,  a  mile  in  double  harness,  with  a  running- 
mate,  in  2:03|;  and,  from  the  fact  that  these  three  events 
were  so  closely  associated,  all  the  horses  being  owned  by  the 
one  man,  and  all  having  been  trained  and  driven  by  me,  I 
think  this  an  appropriate  place  in  which  to  say-  something 
concerning  the  other  two  animals: 

Fanny  Withersi^oon  was  a  handsome  chestnut  mare,  six- 
teen hands  high,  very  rangy  looking,  with  the  grandest  set  of 
feet  and  legs  that  one  could  well  imagine.  She  commenced  her 
turf  career  when  a  colt,  having  been  trained  to  trot,  I  think,  as 
a  two-year-old.  In  her  younger  days,  she  did  not  give  much 
promise  of  the  speed  that  afterward  made  her  famous.  She 
passed  through  a  number  of  different  trainers'  hands,  and 
was  finally  sold  to  Commodore  Kittson,  and  was  in  his  stable 
when  I  took  charge  of  it,  in  1882.  At  that  time  she  had  a 
disposition  to  be  a  rather  unsteady,  disagreeable  mare,  a 
fact  which  she  proved  to  me  beyond  a  doubt  after  I  com- 
menced to  train  her.  She  seemed  to  have  a  great  deal  of 
speed,  but  not  the  least  idea  of  being  driven.  She  wanted 
to  do  everything  when  and  where  she  liked.  The  effect  of 
her  natural  disposition  and  of  having  had  her  own  way 
was  something  that  it  was  rather  difficult  to  overcome.  I  do 
not  say  this  with  any  disrespect  to  any  of  the  gentlemen  who 
drove  her,  because  I  think  that  no  one  man  had  Fanny  long- 
enough  to  give  her  what  she  really  needed — a  thoroughly 
good  schooling.  I  think  that  a  great  many  horses  are  spoiled, 
because  their  trainers  do  not  have  a  chance  at  them,  from 
the  fact  that  they  keep  them  one  season,  which  is  just  about 
long  enough  to  learn  what  to  do  with  them,  and  this  mare, 
I  think,  proved  it.  The  first  year  I  had  her,  while  she  showed 
me  a  great  deal  of  speed,  and  I  drove  her  some  good  heats 


LIFE    AVITII   THE   'IKOTTERS.  159 

and  won  some  races  with  her,  I  thoiiglit  her,  on  the  whole, 
rather  unsatisfactory.  I  drove  her  a  trial  over  the  Cleveland 
track,  in  2:15^,  won  a  heat,  and  made  a  record  for  her  of 
2:17,  in  a  $10,000  purse,  but  got  beaten  a  good  many  slow 
and  unsatisfactory  races,  sometimes  not  as  fast  as  2:20.  At 
the  end  of  the  season,  I  took  her  to  Cincinnati,  at  the  same 
time  I  did  Johnston.  I  made  up  my  mind  that  tliere  could 
be  a  great  deal  of  improvement  made  in  the  way  of  training 
and  driving  her,  and  made  a  study  of  it  through  the  cold 
months.  I  wintered  her  about  the  same  as  Johnston,  the 
only  diiference  being  in  the  feed.  I  gave  her  a  little  less  to 
eat  and  more  work,  she  being  a  very  strong  and  robust  mare, 
with  a  disposition  to  put  on  a  good  deal  of  flesh.  When  the 
spring  arrived  I  commenced  to  woi'k  her.  She  had  ahvays 
been  driven,  l^efore  I  got  her,  with  an  over-check  and  no 
martingales.  At  tliis  time  she  was  rather  slow  to  score,  and 
if  you  pulled  her  out  after  a  horse  and  she  could  not  rush 
by  in  an  instant,  she  would  be  almost  sure  to  break.  I  told 
Mr.  Woodmansee  that,  if  she  could  not  be  broken  of  all  these 
habits  (as  she  was  in  a  class  where  she  must  not  only  be  able 
to  trot  fast  but  also  behave  herself  well  to  get  any  of  the 
money),  it  would  be  better  to  give  up  trying  to  make  a  trotter 
of  her. 

Almost  everyone  thinks  a  trotting  horse  ought  to  be 
driven  with  an  over-check,  a  mistake  that  1  have  often  made 
myself.  In  talking  to  Orrin  Hickok  about  this  peculiar 
mare,  he  suggested  that  she  be  tried  with  a  side-check  and 
an  overdraw  bit.  I  concluded  to  try  the  plan,  he  telling  me 
at  the  time  that  that  was  the  first  arrangement  he  could  drive 
St.  Julien  with.  I  gave  Witherspoon  thirty  days'  work  on  the 
road  to  a  cart  with  this  arrangement.  I  then  put  a  ha  Iter  on 
lier,  or  what  is  better  known  as  a  halter  with  a  standing  mar- 
tingale, and  fastened  the  martingale  under  the  giitli  so  as  to 
draw  her  head  down;  kept  letting  her  check  out,  aud  short- 
ened the  martingale  by  degrees  till  I  got  her  head  on  about  a 
level  with  her  back.  I  drove  her  with  an  easy,  covered  bit, 
and  a  nose  baud.     After  giving  her  six  weeks'  work  on  the 


160  LIFK    WITH   THE   TUOTTKRS. 

road  I  took  her  to  the  track  and  coiumenced  to  give  her  a 
great  many  slow  miles.  Some  daj's  I  gave  her  as  many  as 
six  or  seven  miles  between  2:50  and  3:00  This  treatment 
rather  dulled  her  spirits,  but  I  gave  her  plenty  to  eat  all 
the  time,  and  after  this  commenced  to  teach  her  to  score 
fast.  We  did  nothing  at  all  in  the  way  of  giving  her  fast 
miles,  but  let  her  have  all  her  work  in  scoring.  I  would  take 
her  out  some  days  and  score  her  an  hour  at  a,  time.  At  lirst 
she  did  not  take  very  kindly  to  it;  she  would  either  want  to 
rush  U13  against  the  bit  or  else  break;  but  I  kept  persevering 
with  this  treatment,  and  after  a  month  or  so  of  that  sort  of 
work  saw  some  improvement  in  her  behavior.  Then  I  short- 
ened her  work  and  increased  the  speed.  After  Iliad  driven 
her  two  or  three  moderate  heats  in  the  morning  I  would 
take  a  runner  out  with  her.  At  lirst  she  would  seldom  let 
the  runner  get  within  hailing  distance  without  wanting  to 
break.  I  kept  this  up,  trying  to  accustom  her  to  the  runner, 
and  after  awhile  commenced  scoring  liim  with  her. 

It  was  quite  awhile  before  she  took  kindly  to  that,  but 
after  awhile  she  gave  up  entirely  and  allowed  me  to  place 
her  anywhere  I  liked  in  company  with  other  horses.  I  then 
stopped  giving  her  the  long,  slow  work,  but  changed  it  to 
plenty  of  road  work,  and  brushed  her  every  day  from  a 
quarter  to  a  half  a  mile.  I  took  her  with  me  on  our  trip 
to  Indiana,  and  gave  her  lots  of  moderate  work,  and  when  we 
arrived  in  Chicago  we  had  her  entered  to  trot  against  Edwin 
Tliorne.  Her  feet  and  legs  looked  to  be  in  as  good  condi- 
tion as  it  was  possible  for  them  to  be.  A  week  before  the 
race  I  gave  her  five  heats  between  2: 30  and  2 :24|,  twenty  min- 
utes apart,  with  plenty  of  scoring,  giving  her  al)out  as  much 
work  as  she  would  have  got  had  she  been  in  a  race  with  that 
number  of  heats.  In  tbis  work  she  was  very  steady  and 
showed  iDlenty  of  speed  when  called  ui)on.  I  may  say  that 
she  beat  Edwin  Thorne  one  of  the  best  contested  races  I 
ever  saw,  of  live  heats.  He  took  the  first  two,  she  the  third, 
fourth,  and  fifth.  I  will  describe  the  last  heat  in  detail: 
They  went  away  from  the  wire  together,  and  in  going  down 


LIFE   WITH   THE   TROTTEES,  161 

the  back  side  I  felt  as  though  Fanny  was  able  to  out-trot 
Thorne,  but  concluded,  as  she  was  going  safe  and  steady,  I 
would  remain  where  I  was.  But  she  was  a  peculiar  mare, 
and  the  least  little  thing  would  attract  her  attention  on  the 
track,  so  that  she  was  liable  to  jump  over  it.  At  the  three- 
quarter  pole  there  was  a  path  where  the  people  had  walked 
across  the  track,  and  in  crossing  that  in  every  heat  she 
showed  a  disposition  to  break.  This  time  I  held  her  well 
in  hand,  thinking  that  I  had  Thorne  beaten  sure,  and  that 
there  was  no  chance  for  her  to  make  a  break;  but  when  she 
came  to  the  place  she  seemed  to  notice  it,  and,  in  spite  of 
all  extra  caution  and  effort,  she  made  a  plunge  and  jumped 
over  it.  John  Turner,  who  drove  Thorne,  knowing  my 
mare's  peculiarities,  took  advantage  of  the  circumstance, 
and  made  as  much  noise  with  his  whip. and  voice  as  the  law 
would  allow,  and  at  the  same  time  got  me  in  pretty  close 
to  the  fence,  as  I  thought,  hindering  me  from  having  a 
chance  to  swing  Fanny  out  and  catch  her.  My  first  thought 
was  that  the  race  was  over,  but  as  she  broke  I  swung  her  to 
the  inside  fence  and  let  her  go  as  though  I  intended  to  run 
her  against  it.  This  had  the  desired  effect,  as  she  caught  and 
came  on  with  one  of  the  bursts  of  speed  that  she  was  noted 
for,  and  in  spite  of  all  of  Turner' s  efforts,  she  beat  Thorne, 
thereby  winning  the  race.  I  think  Turner  was  a  little  bit 
surprised,  and  I  know  I  was. 

I  have  heard  a  good  many  people  say  that  it  is  impossi- 
ble to  condition  a  horse  and  make  him  go  his  best  race 
without  having  had  him  in  two  or  three  races.  I  think,  in 
some  instances,  that  may  be  the  case,  but  not  always.  I 
believe,  if  you  have  time  enough  and  give  him  work 
enough,  you  can  condition  a  liorse  and  bring  him  to  his  very 
best  efforts  without  a  public  race.  This  I  consider  the  best 
race  that  Fanny  Witherspoon  ever  trotted  befoi-e  or  after, 
and  I  refer  to  it  in  proof  of  my  argument.  If  a  horse  is  idle 
or  inclined  to  be  lazy,  it  might  need  the  excitement  of  a  race 
or  two  to  get  him  to  his  best  efforts,  but  1  believe  any  fair 
horse  can  be  taken  out  with  a  runner  and  trained  to  his  very 


162  LIFE   WITH   THE   TROTTEKS. 

best  condition  in  that  way.  These  impressions  I  obtained 
from  Orrin  Ilickok,  and  on  this  subject  he  knows  more 
than  an 3'  other  man  I  ever  saw.  In  my  hints  on  training,  I 
shall  give  some  of  his  ideas  as  he  expressed  them  to  me. 

From  Chicago  we  went  to  Kalamazoo,  and  had  identi- 
cally the  same  battle  there  l)etween  Witherspoon  and 
Thorne.  Before  this  race  came  off,  I  met  Mr.  Stewart,  an 
old  and  respected  citizen  of  Kalamazoo.  He  told  me  that, 
in  his  younger  days,  he  timed  Flora  Temple  when  she  made 
her  record  of  2:19|  over  the  Kalamazoo  track,  and  he 
remarked  at  that  time  that  he  did  not  expect  to  time 
another  horse  faster.  In  a  conversation  on  the  morning  of 
the  race,  he  said  he  had  heard  a  great  deal  of  (jther 
horses  going  very  much  faster  than  Flora  Temple,  but  it  had 
never  been  his  privilege  to  time  one  of  them.  I  told  him,  if 
he  would  come  to  the  track  that  afternoon  and  did  not 
get  such  a  chance,  I  would  buy  him  a  red  apple.  He  said: 
"  I  am  getting  old  and  feeble,  but,  if  I  thought  that  I  would 
have  that  opportunity,  I  would  make  an  effort  and  come 
down."  In  the  afternoon  as  1  drove  on  the  track,  I  met 
him  there;  and  he  said,  "  I  am  here,  and  have  got  my  watch 
Avitli  me,  and  if  I  don't  see  some  horse  go  better  than  2:19f, 
I  will  be  disappointed  as  well  as  Avin  a  red  apx^le."  In  the 
lirst  two  heats  Witherspoon  was  slow  in  getting  off,  and  a 
little  inclined  to  be  unsteady,  and  Thorne  beat  her  in  2:20. 
In  the  third  heat  she  got  well  thawed  out,  and  they  had  a 
battle  which  ended  by  her  getting  home  first  in  2:17,  which, 
taking  into  consideration  the  condition  oi  the  track,  1  con- 
sidered the  best  heat  she  ever  trotted.  At  the  end  of  the 
heat  my  friend  Stewart  said:  "  Well,  you  have  won.  I  am 
going  home  now,  and  I  think  that  is  the  last  time  I  will 
ever  see  a  horse  trot  in  2:17,  as  I  fear  my  health  Avill  never 
admit  of  my  coming  to  a  track  again."  Witherspoon  beat 
Thorne  in  the  fourth  heat;  in  the  fifth  she  broke  at  the  half- 
mile  pole,  and  it  looked  as  though  the  race  was  ended,  but 
when  she  got  straightened  out  she  came  witli  one  of  her 
tremendous  bursts  of  speed,  and  while  Turner  drove  Thorne 


LIFE    WITH    THE   TIIOTTEKS.  168 

with  more  determination  than  I  ever  saw  him  dispkiy  before 
or  isince,  she  canght  him  a  hnndred  yards  from  the  wire,  and, 
after  a  desperate  strnggle,  beat  him  out  a  head,  thus  win- 
ning the  race. 

I  now  come  to  the  trial  at  Chicago,  in  which  she  went 
against  Fritz,  a  pacer,  for  a  special  purse.  iSlie  beat  him 
the  iirst  and  second  heats  handily,  but  before  the  third  heat 
I  told  Mr.  Woodmansee  that  I  thought  I  could  give  her  a 
very  fast  record  if  he  wished  to  have  me  do  so.  He  I'eplied: 
"Cut  her  loose;  that  is  just  what  the  Commodore  Avould 
like."  When  she  got  the  word  in  the  third  heat,  she  went 
away  straight  and  fast,  reaching  the  quarter-pole  in  thirty- 
three  seconds;  she  went  the  back  quarter  in  thirty-three 
seconds,  making  the  half  in  1:07.  I  eased  her  a  little  in  the 
third  quarter,  l)ut  she  went  it  in  thirty- four  seconds.  After 
she  got  straightened  into  the  stretch,  I  commenced  to  drive 
her.  When  1  got  within  150  yai'ds  of  the  wire,  Mr.  Wood- 
mansee ran  out  and  motioned  to  me  to  stop  her,  which  I  did. 
She  finished  easy  in  2:16J.  Mr.  Woodmansee  explained  to 
me  afterward  that  he  thought  it  better  to  keep  the  mare  in 
the  2:17  class.  T  am  sure  that  she  would  have  gone  a  mile 
in  2:16,  or  better,  had  he  let  me  finish  with  her  as  I  was 
going. 

I  have  alluded  already  to  some  of  Witherspoon's  pecu- 
liarities. She  was  a  little  inclined  to  shorten  up  her  gait 
behind.  The  last  year  I  had  her  she  improved  very  much 
in  her  disposition,  and  also  in  her  gait,  and  I  believe  that 
had  she  been  trained  regularly  afterwards,  must  have  made 
a  very  fast  record,  as,  at  the  end  of  her  trotting  career,  slie 
was  one  of  the  soundest  animals  I  ever  saw.  She  was  re- 
th*ed  from  the  turf  Avithout  s^Dot  or  blemish  of  any  kind. 
I  wore  on  her  in  front  about  a  ten-ounce  shoe  and  a  light 
quarter-boot,  with  buckskin  rolls  above  her  ankles  behind; 
scalpers,  light  shin  boots,  passing  boots,  and  a  seven-ounce 
shoe.  After  the  breaking  up  by  auction  of  Commodore 
Kittson's  breeding  establishment,  Fanny  was  bought  by  Mr. 
E.  C.  Long,  of  St.  Paul,  who  intends  to  use  her  strictly  as 


164  LIFE    WITH    THE   TUOTTERS. 

a  brood  mare,  and  that  she  will  jjrove  a  great  success  in  this 
department  cannot  be  doubted,  as,  in  addition  to  possessing 
wonderful  sx3eed,  she  had  also  the  quality  of  stamina  to  a 
great  degree,  as  was  shown  by  her  trotting  two  miles  in 
4:43,  lowering  the  record  for  that  distance  three  seconds, 
her  performance  being  still  the  best.  In  blood  lines  she  is 
of  a  most  fashionable  quality,  being  hj  Almont,  one  of  the 
sons  of  Alexander's  Abdallah,  and  out  of  a  mare  by  Gough\s 
Wagner,  thus  uniting  in  her  the  strains  that  produced  Maud 
S.  and  Jay  Eye  See — the  Hambletonian  family  on  the  pa- 
ternal side  and  that  of  Lexington  in  the  female  line. 

The  third  performance  of  that  memorable  day  at  Chicago, 
was  with  Minnie  R.  This  was  a  remai'kable  mare  in  more 
ways  than  one.  In  the  first  place,  she  was  not  a  trotting-bred 
mare,  her  pedigree  being  almost  thoroughbred.  In  the  next 
place,  she  was  the  only  horse  I  ever  saw  that  had  a  record 
at  pacing  and  trotting,  both  better  than  2:20.  When  she 
first  came  into  my  hands  Minnie  R.  had  a  trotting  record  of 
2:19,  and  with  a  disposition  to  pace.  She  had  been  trained 
and  driven  with  heavy  toe-weights  and  from  the  use  of  them 
had  become  very  sore  and  hime,  so  much  so  that,  in  fact,  it 
was  almost  imijossible  to  make  hnr  strike  a  trot,  no  matter 
how  much  weight  I  would  put  on  her.  I  told  Mr.  Wood- 
mansee  I  thought  it  was  very  foolish  to  try  and  train  her  to 
trot,  and  suggested  that  he  make  a  pacer  of  her.  He 
seemed  to  think  it  better  not  to  give  up  the  idea  of  trot- 
ting her.  As  the  tirst  year  I  had  her  I  had  done  little  if  any- 
thing with  hei*,  when  I  went  to  Cincinnati  with  Johnston, 
I  took  her  along,  took  off  her  shoes  and  toe-weights,  and 
went  to  work  on  her,  with  the  idea  of  trying  to  relieve  some 
of  the  soreness  in  her  feet  and  legs.  We  succeeded  in  that 
very  well,  and  when  the  training  commenced  in  the  spring, 
I  insisted  on  trying  to  make  a  pacer  of  her,  and  Mr.  Wood- 
mansee  finally  consented.  When  I  first  began  to  work  her 
on  a  pace  I  had  to  put  about  sixteen  ounces  on  her  in  front, 
and  about  nine  ounces  behind.  She  could  pace  about  a  2:40 
gait.     I  commenced  very  moderately  with  her,  the  same  as 


LIFE   WITH    THE   TROTTERS.  165 

with  a  horse  that  had  never  shown  any  speed  at  any  gait. 
I  kept  increasing  the  weight  on  her  hind  shoes,  and  decreas- 
ing the  weight  in  front,  and,  after  about  thirty  days  of  that 
sort  of  training,  I  paced  her  a  mile  in  2:30.  At  this  time 
she  had  on  about  fifteen  ounces  behind  and  not  more  than 
twelve  ounces  in  front.  She  handled  her  forward  feet  all 
right  when  I  began  to  work  hei',  but  her  hind  feet  would 
get  out  of  place  occasionally,  and  she  would  make  a  break. 
That  was  the  reason  I  kept  the  weight  on  her  behind.  After 
training  her  thirty  days  more  with  the  weight  in  this  man- 
ner, she  got  to  be  so  steady  and  true  that  I  drove  her  a  mile 
in  2:25,  and  she  could  have  gone  some  faster.  I  gradually 
reduced  the  weight  on  her  hind  feet;  the  only  change  I  made 
on  lier  forward  feet  was  that  I  shod  her  with  leather  pads 
and  a  sponge  of  oakum.  I  then  took  her,  with  the  balance 
of  the  stable,  to  Indiana,  and  paced  her  several  races,  all  of 
which  she  won  with  ease. 

From  there  we  went  to  Chicago  and  Michigan,  and  she 
never  lost  a  race.  At  Buifalo,  during  the  summer  meeting, 
Minnie  R.  i)aced  the  race  of  her  life.  That  year  "  Knap  " 
McCarthy  had  Jewett.  He  had  been  a  trotter,  with  a  dis- 
position to  pace,  and  "  Knap,"  seeing  Minnie  R.  going  so 
well,  concluded  to  try  it  on  Jewett.  The  repoi't  had  got  out 
that  he  had  shown  him  a  very  fast  trial,  which  I  think  must 
have  been  true,  as,  when  the  bell  tapped  for  the  race  at 
Buffalo,  "  Knap ''  had  Jewett  in  the  race,  and  Peter  Schatz, 
his  owner,  was  there,  with  all  his  relatives  from  over  the 
line,  to  bet  their  money  on  him.  I  thought  Minnie  R.  ought 
to  beat  him  pretty  handily,  as  I  had  rated  him  to  go  a  mile 
in  about  2: 18,  but,  for  fear  that  they  might  have  a  "sleeper," 
I  concluded  to  lay  up  a  heat  or  two.  It  was  very  fortunate 
for  us  that  we  adopted  that  plan,  as  I  now  think  that,  if  we 
had  gone  out  in  the  first  heat,  we  would  have  been  beaten  in 
the  race.  When  the  judges  said  ''go"  in  the  fii\st  heat, 
Jewett  went  out  in  front,  and  was  never  headed,  winning  in 
the  fast  time  of  2:16^,  and  Peter  Schatz  was  corresptmdingly 
happy.    In  the  next  heat,  Jewett  led  from  start  to  finish,  in 


166  LIFE  -wrTTi  'iiiK  Ti:()TTT-:i:.s. 

2:15|.  T  (lid  not  make  a  move  in  eitJier  (me  of  these  heats, 
and  of  course  theie  was  nothing  left  for  me  to  do  in  the 
third  mile  but  to  go  out  and  make  a  tight.  When  they  gave 
the  word  Jewett  Avent  away  with  the  lead.  At  the  quarter 
pole  he  was  two  lengths  in  front  of  us,  and  going  down  the 
back  stretch  he  outpaced  me  at  least  another  length,  but 
at  the  half-mile  pole  I  set  sail,  and,  when  we  turned  into  the 
stretch,  Minnie  R.  commenced  to  gain  on  him,  but  very 
slowdy.  From  there  to  the  judges'  stand,  both  horses  were 
driven  for  their  lives,  and  Minnie  R.  beat  Jewett  a  nose  in 
2:16^,  which  most  people  thought  a  pi-ettj^  good  third  heat 
for  two  comparatively  green  pacers  to  make. 

Jewett  was  a  good  deal  distressed  after  the  heat,  and, 
wiiile  it  did  not  look  very  rosy  to  me,  I  felt  fairly  confident 
that  Minnie  R.  would  beat  him  the  race.  She  did,  but  not 
without  a  struggle,  as  he  hung  on  and  went  one  of  the  best 
races  of  his  life.  Just  before  the  race  started  my  old  friend 
Charlie  Perkins,  whom  everybody  around  a  race  track  is  on 
friendly  terms  with,  came  and  asked  me  what  I  thought 
about  the  race.  I  told  him  to  bet  every  dollar  he  had  on 
Minnie  R.,  as  I  thought  he  would  win  it,  sure  and  easy. 
After  the  race  was  over,  Perkins  came  aronnd  and  in  his 
own  peculiar  manner,  told  me  that  times  had  changed  con- 
siderably since  he  was  a  boy,  as  in  those  days  men  would  not 
tell  a  friend  to  put  his  last  dollar  on  as  close  a  race  as  that 
was.  But,  after  I  explained  to  him  that  Jewett  was  about 
three  seconds  faster  than  I  thought  he  was,  Charlie  said  that 
as  long  as  he  had  won  his  money,  he  would  forgive  me. 

From  Buffalo  w^e  went  to  Rochester,  where  Minnie  R. 
met  and  defeated  the  same  field  of  horses,  in  four  heats, 
Jewett  winning  one  heat.  None  of  the  jiacers  were  at  their 
best  in  this  race,  as  they  had  not  gotten  over  the  scorching- 
time  they  had  at  Buffalo.  We  returned  West  from  there,  and 
gave  a  number  of  exhibitions  with  running  mate,  in  all  of 
which  Minnie  R.  acted  well  and  went  fast.  In  this  per- 
formance at  Chicago,  where  Minnie  R.  made  her  record,  the 
junner  was  not  right  up  to  his  best  form,  as  he  had  taken 


LIF1-:   WITH    THE   TKOTTERS.  167 

part  in  a  good  many  races  of  that  kind  and  become  stale. 
Minnie  K.  went  to  the  half-mile  pole  in  one  minute,  and 
covered  the  third  quarter  at  the  same  gait,  and,  I  am  snre,  if 
the  runner  had  not  tired,  they  would  have  gone  the  mile  bet- 
ter than  two  minutes,  but  200  yards  from  the  finish  he  gave  uj) 
the  gliost,  and  Minnie  R.  had  to  do  all  the  work  from  there 
out,  landing  at  the  stand  in  2:03^.  This  was  her  last  perfonn- 
ance  in  public,  and  she  retired  from  the  turf  with  three  rec- 
ords that  no  other  one  horse  ever  had — 2:19  trotting,  2 :16|^  pac- 
ing in  single  harness,  and  2:03^  pacing  with  a  running  mate. 

Here  is  a  problem  for  the  breeders  and  trotters  of  pacers 
to  solve.  This  was  a  mare  without  any  pacing  or  trotting 
blood  to  speak  of,  and  for  her  to  go  out  and  both  trot  and 
pace  so  well  seems  to  me  considerable  of  a  mystery.  She 
was  a  very  blood-like  and  racy-looking  mare,  about  fifteen 
and  one-half  hands  high,  with  head  and  neck  like  a  race 
horse,  and  long,  round,  smooth  body  and  hix^s.  She  did  not 
look  at  all  like  a  typical  pacer,  was  a  good  feeder  and  easy 
trainer,  and  a  good  campaigner.  She  had  the  very  best  of 
legs,  without  any  bunches  or  puffs  of  any  kind,  and  her 
feet,  with  the  exception  that  they  had  become  very  much 
bruised  and  sore  from  the  use  of  toe-weights  and  heavy 
shoes,  were  remarkably  good.  That  she  was  very  game  was 
demonstrated  both  at  the  pace  and  trot.  I  think  that  she 
should  have  had  a  good  deal  better  record  at  both  gaits  than 
she  got,  and  as  she  has  been  put  to  breeding,  I  shall  watch, 
with  a  good  deal  of  interest,  wdiat  her  produce  may  do. 

While  on  the  subject  of  pacers,  I  will  give  a  little  history 
of  my  star  side- wheeler,  Mattie  Hunter.  She  came  on  the 
turf  in  an  era  of  pacers  that  has  never  been  equaled,  and 
looks  as  though  it  never  would  be.  She  was  one  of  what 
was  once  called  the  ' '  Big  Four' '  —namely,  SleejDy  Tom,  Lucy, 
Rowdy  Boy,  and  Mattie  Hunter — but  I  will  not  undertake 
to  tell  all  of  the  wonderful  races  that  these  horses  paced.  I 
have  a  fair  knowledge  of  them,  as,  at  one  time  or  another,  I 
drove,  I  think,  all  of  them.  I  drove  Mattie  Hunter  a  race 
or  two  for  Mr.  Pate,  of  St.  Louis,    and  I  liked  her  so  well 


168  LIFE   WITH  THE  TROTTEKS, 

that  I  induced  my  friend,  C.  F.  Emory  to  buy  her.  He  did 
so,  thinking  she  would  be  useful  as  a  race  horse,  and  that 
when  her  career  on  the  turf  was  finished  he  would  like  to 
have  her  for  a  brood  mare.  I  think  the  result  has  proved 
that  his  judgment  M^as  wise  in  the  matter,  as,  after  he  owned 
her,  she  beat  more  horses  than  ever  beat  her,  and  her  career 
in  the  stud  promises  to  eclipse  her  turf  career.  She  was  a 
mare  fifteen  hands  one  and  one-half  inches  high,  a  chestnut 
with  four  white  legs,  white  face,  and  I  can't  remember  now, 
in  all  my  career,  a  handsomer  or  more  blood-like  animal  than 
Mattie.  She  was  the  universal  favorite  of  all  the  women 
and  children.  In  motion  she  was  grace  itself,  her  gait  being- 
perfect,  and  her  disi)osition  the  finest.  She  was  a  fast 
scorer,  and  a  good  finisher,  two  things  that  are  hard  to  beat 
in  a  race  horse. 

In  the  summer  of  1879,  Sleepy  Tom  electrified  the  coun- 
try by  his  wonderful  pacing  performance,  having  beaten  all 
previous  trotting  and  joacing  records  in  Chicago  that  year. 
At  Rochester  Mr.  Pate  asked  me  to  drive  Mattie  Hunter, 
saying  that  he  thought  she  had  a  chance  to  beat  Sleepy 
Tom,  a  statement  that  I  was  hardly  prepared  to  believe;  but 
the  result  proved  that  in  Mattie  Hunter  Mr.  Pate  had  a 
great  mare  that  day,  as  she  forced  Sleepy  Tom  to  go  the 
best  race  that  has  ever  been  paced.  I  laid  Mattie  up  in  the 
first  heat,  which  Rowdy  Boy  won  in  2:18f,  giving  every- 
body a  surprise,  as  no  one  expected  him  to  go  at  that  rate. 
The  second  heat  Sleepy  Tom  won  in  2:16|^,  Mattie  Hunter 
again  just  dropping  inside  the  distance  flag.  In  the  third 
heat  we  went  out  for  a  battle,  and  Hunter  beat  Tom  in  2:15. 
She  beat  him  the  fourth  heat  in  2:15^.  The  fifth  heat  he 
defeated  her,  after  one  of  the  most  desperate  finishes  I  ever 
saw,  in  2:13^.  In  the  sixth  heat  they  fought  every  inch  of 
the  road  from  start  to  finish,  the  others  being  out  of  the 
race,  and  Tom  beat  Mattie  the  shortest  kind  of  a  head  in 
2:14,  thus  winning  the  fastest  race  of  the  number  of  heats 
ever  paced  or  trotted  in  one  day,  the  average  being  2:14f  for 
the  six  heats. 


LIFE   WITH   THE   TKOTTEES.  169 

This  a  very  good  story  for  people  who  are  breeding  and 
training  pacers  to  read  whenever  they  get  to  thinking  they 
have  the  only  pacer  that  ever  was.  Another  thing  that 
impresses  itself  on  my  mind  is  the  fact  that  both  these 
horses  were  pacing-bred  pacers.  Of  late  years  nearly  all 
our  fast  pacers  have  been  trotting-bred.  and  Jewett,  Mike 
Wilkes,  Westmont,  Roy  Wilkes,  and  a  dozen  others  that  I 
could  name  that  have  beaten  2:20  a  good  way,  are  by  trot- 
ting sires,  the  Alexander's  Abdallah  and  George  Wilkes 
branches  of  the  Hambletonian  family  having  given  us  more 
pacers  than  any  other  trotting  strain.  Still,  there  has 
never  been  a  pacer  that  has  gone  as  good  a  six-heat  race  as 
both  Mattie  Hunter  and  Sleepy  Tom  fought  out  that  day  at 
Rochester,  nine  years  ago.  Mattie  Hunter  is  by  Prince 
Pulaski,  a  pacing  horse  from  Tennessee,  and  Sleepy  Tom 
was  by  Tom  Rolfe,  a  descendant  of  the  famous  old-time 
pacing  mare  Pocahontas,  that  pulled  a  wagon  in  2:17^  when 
she  was  four  months  in  foal  with  the  colt  that  afterward 
sired  this  very  pacer  Sleepy  Tom.  Mattie  Hunter's  best 
record  was  made  under  the  following  circumstances:  At  the 
July  meeting  at  Pittsburgh  in  1881,  Maud  S.,  trotted  against 
the  watch,  and  went  a  very  fast  mile.  The  public  and  the 
association  thought  that  she  would  be  able,  with  another 
trial,  to  beat  it,  and  they  arranged  for  her  to  trot  against 
the  watch  again.  On  the  regular  programme  Mattie  Hunter 
won  the  free-for-all  pacing  race  that  week,  and  took  the 
deciding  heat  in  2:14f.  The  association  offered  an  extra 
j)urse  for  her  and  Sorrel  Dan  to  i)ace  the  day  that  Maud  S. 
should  make  her  trial  against  the  watch,  with  an  extra 
inducement  if  2:14  was  beaten.  The  race  was  to  be  a  mile 
and  repeat.  Mattie  Hunter  won  in  straight  heats,  going 
the  first  mile  in  2:12f,  and  the  second  in  2:15|,  thereby 
winning  the  race  and  t\ie  extra  money  that  was  given  for  time. 

One  of  the  best  races  Mattie  ever  paced,  taking  into  con- 
sideration the  slowness  of  the  track,  was  at  Spring-field, 
where  she  defeated  Lucy  and  Rowdy  Boy  a  contest  of  six 
heats,  going  the  last  mile  in  2:15|.     I  have  mentioned  only 


170  LIFE    WITH   THE   TIIOTTEUS. 

a  very  small  percentage  of  the  great  number  of  races  that 
she  took  part  in,  always  being  in  the  thickest  of  the  fight, 
and  I  think,  with  the  exception  of  once  or  twice,  getting 
some  share  of  the  purse.  She  wore  no  boots  of  any  kind, 
and  paced  all  her  races  with  an  eight  ounce  shoe  in  front 
and  five  ounces  behind.  I  wore  leather  pads  on  her  all 
around,  had  a  bar-shoe  on  in  front,  with  calks  at  the  toe 
and  heel.  I  know  it  is  rather  unusual,  either  with  a  trotter 
or  pacer,  to  use  calks,  but  I  have  done  it  with  a  number  of 
horses,  with  success.  Mattie's  feet  had  been  neglected  in 
her  early  life,  had  gotten  out  of  shape  and  were  very  much 
bruised,  she  having  what  people  term  corns,  but  which  are 
neither  more  nor  less  than  severe  bruises,  on  the  heel.  When 
you  .shoe  a  horse  with  a  very  light  shoe,  without  any  leather 
or  other  protection,  and  drive  him  over  a  track  as  hard  as 
they  have  them  nowadays,  the  result  is  almost  sure  to  be 
that  the  horse' s  feet  will  become  more  or  less  bruised  and 
very  much  inflamed.  I  think  that  a  small  calk  helps  to 
break  the  concussion,  and  for  that  reason  I  have  often  used 
them.  I  drove  Mattie  with  an  open  bridle,  long  martingales, 
and  an  easy  over-check  and  check  bit.  She  drove  very 
straight,  never  pulled,  and  never  wanted  to  break.  After 
her  turf  career  Mr.  Emory  put  Mattie  to  breeding.  He 
mated  her  with  strictly  trotting-bred  horses.  I  have  watched 
all  her  colts  with  a  good  deal  of  interest,  and  have  never 
seen  any  one  of  them  strike  a  pace  under  any  circumstances, 
but,  on  the  contrary,  every  one  of  them  trotted  naturally, 
right  from  the  start,  without  shoes  or  weight  of  any  kind. 
Mattie  herself  had  a  nice,  open  gait  at  the  trot,  and  I  have 
sometimes  seen  her  strike  at  least  a  three -minute  gait  at 
that  way  of  going.  I  always  felt  that,  if  she  had  been 
weighted  and  trained  to  trot,  she  would  certainly  have  gone 
very  fast,  and  I  jDredict  that  some  of  her  colts  will  prove 
winners  at  that  gait,  and,  in  fact,  one  of  them  has  already 
done  so,  as  her  daughter,  Mattie  Mentone,  as  a  two-year- 
old,  in  1887,  captured  a  stake  and  beat  2:40. 

One  other  pacer  I  had  that  had  a  good  deal  of  speed,  but 


LIFE   WITH   THE  TEOTTEKS,  171 

lacked  the  other  qualities  that  go  to  make  up  a  race  horse, 
was  the  gray  gelding  Sweetser.  Whenever  I  hear  his  name 
it  brings  to  mind  the  time  I  sold  him  to  my  life-long  friend 
Capt.  John  De  Mass  of  Detroit.  When  I  bought  Sweetser 
I  gave  $2,500  of  my  own  money  for  him,  and  while  I  owned 
him  gave  him  a  record  of  2:17  to  wagon  and  2:lo  in  harness, 
but  for  all  that  I  decided  that  he  would  not  do  for  a  race 
horse.  One  day  at  Cleveland  we  were  discussing  the 
qualities  of  the  different  horses,  and  Sweetser' s  name  was 
mentioned.  I  said  that  I  owned  him,  and  that  I  would  be 
glad  to  sell  him  at  a  loss.  De  Mass  asked  how  much  of 
a  loss  I  would  stand,  and  I  told  him  I  gave  $2,500  and  was 
willing  to  lose  $1,250.  He  said  that  if  I  split  the  balance 
he  would  take  the  horse,  meaning  of  course  that  he  AA^uld 
give  me  $625  for  him.  I  told  him  that  was  a  good  ways 
to  fall,  from  $2,500  to  $625,  but  I  should  let  him  have 
Sweetser.  He  got  his  money  out,  paid  me  $500,  and 
said  that  he  would  give  me  the  other  $125  at  the  hotel. 
I  told  him  that  he  need  not  do  that,  I  would  bet  him 
$125  that  he  had  cheated  himself,  give  him  thirty  days  to 
figure,  and  let  him  decide  it.  I  met  De  Mass  a  few  days 
afterward.  He  handed  me  the  $125  and  said  he  was  glad 
he  did  not  accept  my  proiDosition  to  bet,  as  he  had  decided, 
without  Availing  thirty  days,  that  he  would  lose.  As  De 
Mass  is  one  of  the  men  that  never  cry  if  they  do  not  get  the 
best  of  everything,  this  horse  trade  never  interfered  with  our 
friendship. 

Gem,  another  pacer,  that  I  had,  was  a  handsome  bay 
mare  by  Tom  Rolfe.  The  only  remarkable  thing  that  I  can 
think  of  about  her  was  that  she  got  a  record  of  2:13|,  which 
I  gave  her,  and  that  she  never  won  for  me  but  one  race, 
and  tried  lo  lose  that  one,  the  only  reason  that  she  did  not 
do  so  being  that  the  other  horses  could  act  worse  than  she 
could,  one  of  her  opponents  getting  distanced  after  beat- 
ino'  her  two  heats. 


12 


CHAPTER  VII. 

The  story  of  the  fast,  game  and  reliable  stallion  Wedgewood — A  horse  that 
had  a  succession  of  hard  races  during  his  career — Going  close  to  2:20  the 
first  time  he  started — Desperate  contests  in  the  mud  at  St.  Louis  and  Cin- 
cinnati, and  a  glorious  victory  at  Washington — Down  the  central  circuit 
the  next  season,  winning  every  race  in  which  he  started — A  peculiar  horse 
to  train  and  drive — What  came  of  trying  to  please  a  friend — Laying  up 
heats,  and  sparring  with  the  judges  as  well  as  the  other  drivers — A  well- 
told  tale  of  a  great  horse's  campaign  from  the  lakes  to  the  sea. 

The  best  and  fastest  stallion  tliat  ever  I  drove,  and  one 
of  the  most  successful  horses  that  ever  appeared  on  the 
trotting  track,  was  the  brown  stallion  Wedgewood  that 
came  into  my  stable  late  in  the  fall  of  1879.  Wedgewood 
is  by  Belmont,  one  of  the  stallions  in  use  at  the  AVoodburn 
farm  of  Mr.  A.J.  Alexander,  where  he  Avas  bred,  and  his  dam 
was  Woodbine  by  the  thoroughbred  horse  Woodford.  This 
mare  Woodbine  also  iDroduced  Woodford  Mambrino, 
another  stallion  that  proved  himself  most  successful  on  the 
turf  and  in  the  stud,  making  a  record  of  2:21^  and  siring 
among  others  the  famous  stallion  Pancoast,  that  was  sold 
for  $28,000,  the  highest  price  ever  paid  at  auction  for  a  trot- 
ting stallion.  Pancoast  made  a  name  for  himself  when  his 
son  Patron  came  out  as  a  three-year-old  a  few  years  ago, 
and  trotted  in  2:19^  that  being  the  best  record  for  a  trotter 
of  that  age.  This  he  accomplished  in  a  well-contested  race. 
Two  years  later  he  reduced  that  record  to  2: 14 J  in  the  third 
heat  of  a  race  over  the  Cleveland  track,  in  which  he  beat 
Harry  Wilkes.  I  state  these  facts  to  show  that  Wedgewood 
comes  honestly  by  his  trotting  sjDeed  and  race-horse  quali- 
ties, and  also  his  success  in  the  stud. 

(172) 


LIFE   AVITH   THE  TEOTTEES.  173 

After  selling  Rarus  to  Mr.  Bonner,  myself  and  a  friend 
were  looking  around  for  a  trotter.  Mr.  Emory  had  called 
my  attention  before  this  to  Wedgewood,  telling  me  he 
thought  him  the  making  of  a  good  horse.  This  talk  left  an 
impression  on  my  mind,  and  I  decided  that  we  would  take 
a  trij)  to  Kentucky  and  see  the  horse.  On  our  way  there 
we  met  Mr.  Emory,  and  he  rather  surprised  me  by  saying 
he  had  already  bought  Wedgewood.  I  asked  him  if  he 
would  sell  him,  and  if  so  at  what  price.  He  told  me  he 
would,  and  fixed  $10,000  as  the  x)rice.  We  went  to  Ken- 
tucky and  spent  a  week  looking  over  the  trotters,  and  listen- 
ing to  the  stories  that  w^re  told  us  of  the  wonderful 
horses  that  were  owned  at  that  time  in  the  State.  We  finally 
decided  to  buy  Wedgewood.  The  horse  had  a  public 
record  at  this  time  of  2:38,  and  had  shown  a  trial  over  the 
Lexington  track  in  2:23|-.  When  we  went  to  Mr.  Alex- 
ander's place  in  company  with  Mr.  Emory  to  see  the  horse, 
we  found  that  he  was  certainly  one  that  his  breeder  and 
trainer  could  be  proud  of  and  the  first  time  I  drove  him,  I 
decided  to  buy  him,  which  we  did  without  any  delay.  As 
I  remember  him  on  that  morning  he  was  a  handsome  brown 
stallion  about  fifteen  hands,  two  and  a  half  inches  high,  with 
the  best  of  feet  and  limbs,  had  no  wind  puffs,  bunches  or 
blemishes  of  any  kind,  and  looked  what  he  afterward  proved 
to  be,  a  first-class  race-horse  in  every  particular.  Mr.  Hull, 
Mr.  Alexander's  trainer,  had  nothing  but  praise  for  the 
horse,  and  predicted  that  he  would  certainly  beat  2:20,  He 
told  me  that  he  had  never  done  much  with  him  in  the  way  of 
hard  training,  had  given  him  plenty  of  moderate  work, 
wishing  rather  to  have  a  good  horse  than  a  fast  colt. 

It  seemed  to  be  Wedgewood' s  fate  while  on  the  turf  to 
have  nothing  but  hard  battles  to  fight.  In  the  first  race  I 
ever  started  him,  at  St,  Louis,  he  made  a  horse  trot  in  2:20 
to  beat  him.  In  this  race  no  one  had  any  idea  that  they 
would  go  better  than  2:27  or  2:28.  I  knew  Wedgewood  was 
not  in  good  shape  for  a  hard  race,  but  thought  at  that  rate 
of  speed  he  would  have   no  trouble  to  win,    and  on  the 


174  LIFE  WITH   THE   TROTTERS. 

strength  of  that  started  him  and  put  my  money  on  it. 
This  race  will  prove  that  even  the  peoj)le  on  the  inside  of  a 
horse  race  gtre  sometimes  seriously  mistaken.  I  for  instance 
in  this  race  thinking  1  had  an  easy  thing  to  win  in  2:26  or 
2:27,  and  betting  my  money  on  that  basis,  realized  before 
the  race  was  over  that  I  stood  a  good  chance  of  getting  beaten, 
losing  my  money,  and  mining  my  horse.  The  race  was  a  hard 
fight  of  seven  heats,  and  before  it  was  over  the  track 
was  a  sea  of  mud  from  the  effects  of  a  storm  that  came  up. 
As  this  was  my  first  race  with  Wedgewood  in  I  decided  to 
lay  him  up.  The  first  heat  was  won  by  Green  Charley  in 
2:26^.  The  result  of  this  heat  rather  convinced  me  that  I 
would  have  no  trouble  to  win,  and  when  they  gave  the  word 
on  the  second  heat  I  started  out  for  the  front.  Fanny  Rob- 
inson, a  mare  who  up  to  that  time  had  the  reputation  of 
being  very  fast  but  uncertain,  more  liable  to  be  distanced 
than  to  win,  took  the  lead,  and  I  followed  with  Wedgewood 
in  second  place.  At  the  half-mile  pole  I  moved  up  and 
tried  to  beat  her,  but  was  very  much  surprised  to  have  her 
stay  through  a  hard  fight,  and  lead  me  to  the  wire  by  a 
neck.  As  I  came  back  to  the  stand  Mr.  Goldsmith  was 
there,  and  said:  "He  beat  you,  but  you  have  got  a  good 
horse , ' '  The  heat  was  in  2 : 20 J ,  I  acknowledged  that  I  was 
surprised  as  I  never  for  a  moment  suj^posed  that  she  could 
make  such  a  performance.  In  the  next  heat  we  went  at  it 
hammer  and  tongs  when  the  judges  said  "go."  Fanny 
Robinson  beat  me  all  the  way  to  the  distance  stand.  There 
Wedgewood  closed  with  her,  and  they  came  to  the  wire  a 
dead  heat,  both  horses  tired,  in  2:23^.  In  the  fourth  heat 
they  had  another  struggle  from  start  to  finish.  Fifty  yards 
from  the  wire,  when  Wedgewood  had  the  mare  beaten,  he 
pulled  off  a  shoe,  made  a  break,  and  she  won  the  heat  in 
2:23. 

We  were  then  overtaken  by  a  tremendous  shower  of  rain 
and  the  race  was  postponed  until  the  following  day.  When 
we  were  called  out  the  track  was  so  bad  that  I  was  afraid 
to  start  my  horse,  and  I  tried  to  induce  the  judges  to  agree 


LIFE   WITH   THE   TEOTTEES.  175 

to  a  postponement,  saying  I  tliouglit  it  inhuman  to  compel 
horses  to  trot  over  a  track  like  that,  and  pointing  out  that 
I  had  just  paid  a  long  price  for  my  horse,  and  was  afraid 
that  I  might  ruin  him.     The  gentlemanly  judge,  whom  I 
shall  never  forget,  gave  me  a  pretty  short  answer,  said  he 
thought  the  track  was  too  good  if  anything,  and  cautioned 
me  to  bring  my  horse  out  and  use  my  best  endeavors  to 
win.     This  last  suggestion  he  might  as  well  have  kept  to 
himself,   as  I  had  my  money  on  Wedgewood,  and  did  not 
intend  to  give  up  without  a  fight.    The  other  gentlemen  who 
thought  they  had  such  good  mud  horses  were  a  little  sur- 
prised when  Wedgewood  went  out  in  the  morning  and  won 
the  fifth  heat  in  2:31  going  through  the  slush  like  a  duck  on 
its  way  to  breakfast.     He  was  beaten  the  next  heat  after  a 
driving  finish  and  was  as  tired  a  horse  as  ever  I  saw.      An 
old  friend  of  mine,  J.  C.  Kelly,   who  had  some  money  on 
him,  told  me  that  my  chances  for  winning  the  race  were 
gone,  that  he  did  not  believe  it  possible  for  any  horse  that 
was  as  tired  as  Wedgewood  was  to  go  another  heat  fast 
enough  to  win.     I  told  him  that  I  was  not  worrying  about 
getting  beaten, but  I  was  sure  that  it  would  ruin  the  horse  to 
give  him   such  a  race  as  he  was  getting  in  the  condition 
I   knew  him  to   be  m.      I  took  him  into  a  field  behind 
the  judges'  stand,    called  for   a  couple  of  pails  of  warm 
water  with  which  I  bathed  him  thoroughl}^,  washed  off  the 
mud,  gave  him  a  good  fomenting  with  hot  Pond' s  Extract, 
threw  a  light  blanket  over  him,  and  walked  him  about.     In 
a  short  time  he  stopjDed  trembling  on  his  legs,  seemed  easier 
in  his  Avind,  and  I  made  up  my  mind  that  the  rest  of  them 
must  be  a  little  tired,  as  they  too  had  been  going  their  best 
through  the  mud.  In  the  deciding  heat  Fanny  Robinson  beat 
Wedgewood  all  the  way  to  the  distance  stand,  but  there  he 
carried  her  to  a  break,  and  won  in  2:27J. 

This  being  the  first  race  in  which  Wedgewood  started, 
and  taking  into  consideration  his  condition,  and  the  other 
circumstances  that  I  have  alluded  to,  I  should  not  have  been 
at  all  surprised  if  it  had  ruined  him,  and  so  stated  at  the 


176  LIFE   WITH   THE  TEOTTEES. 

time.  The  following  week  at  Cincinnati,  lie  trotted  two.' 
races,  and  here  the  luck  of  St.  Louis  followed  him,  as  they 
were  both  desperate  affairs  of  five  heats  each,  where  he  was 
defeated  after  winning  a  heat  in  2:23^  over  a  half-mile  track. 
I  then  said:  "No  more  hard  races  until  he  is  in  order,  if  I 
don't  win  a  dollar  with  him."  Right  here  I  wish  to  state 
that  I  have  seen  a  great  many  horses  cruelly  punished  and 
injured  by  trying  to  win  with  them  when  they  had  no 
chance,  and  were  in  no  condition,  simply  to  please  the  spec- 
tators, and  iDool-buyers  and  satisfy  the  judges.  In  the  sec- 
ond Cincinnati  race  I  soon  found  that  it  would  be  impossible 
for  me  to  win.  There  were  sixteen  starters,  and  as  Wedge- 
wood  was  the  favorite  over  the  field  they  combined  to  at 
least  not  give  me  any  the  best  of  it.  I  believe  that  when  a 
man  knows  he  can  not  possibly  win,  he  ought  to  have  the 
right  to  drive  his  horse  as  easy  as  he  likes,  but  in  this  in- 
stance, as  in  many  more,  after  the  horse  had  made  every 
effort  to  win,  and  could  not,  the  judges  called  me  up  and 
wanted  me  to  punish  him  just  to  satisfy  the  public,  some- 
thing I  very  plainly  told  them  I  would  not  do.  I  informed 
them  that  I  would  rather  have  the  public  dissatisfied  than 
to  punish  the  horse,  as  I  saw  there  was  no  chance  for  him  to 
win.  One  of  John  Turner' s  strong  points  to  my  mind,  is 
that  when  he  is  beaten  and  he  knows  it  he  stops  punish- 
ing his  horse  right  there,  and  instead  of  wearing  him  out 
trying  to  do  something  imx)ossible,  saves  him  for  another 
day.  The  best  race-horse  trainer  I  ever  saw  had  one  rule  in 
regard  to  this.  The  order  he  always  gave  his  jockey  was: 
"When  you  find  you  are  beaten,  stop  riding;  don't  i)unish 
your  horse  to  win  second  or  third  x)lace,"  and  I  believe  that 
the  trainer  who  does  this  will  save  his  horse  and  make  more 
money  than  the  man  who  hammers  him  out  and  drives  him 
those  several  races  for  the  sake  of  getting  a  place. 

From  Cincinnati,  I  took  Wedgewood  to  Pittsburgh,  where 
I  stuck  to  my  resolve,  as  I  drove  him  a  very  easy  race.  From 
there  we  went  to  Philadelphia,  Avhere  he  had  another  easy 
race,  and  was  a  much  improved  horse.     About  this  time 


LIFE   WITH  THE  TROTTERS.  177 

some  of  talent  remarked  that  I  had  paid  pretty  well  for  a 
13oor  horse,  and  when  I  started  him  in  Washington  the 
following  week  in  a  large  field  of  pretty  fair  campaigners, 
he  was  entirely  overlooked  in  the  betting.  I  thought  he  had 
a  chance  to  win,  and  told  some  of  my  friends  so.  We  got 
our  money  on  at  good  odds,  and  when  it  came  to  the  race 
I  laid  Wedgewood  up  the  first  heat,  winning  the  second  with 
him  in  2:25^.  I  then  made  up  my  mind  that  everybody  was 
getting  ready  to  have  a  battle,  and  that  it  was  a  safe  con- 
clusion that  I  would  have  a  chance  to  lay  up  a  heat  or  two, 
which  I  did.  Wedgewood  won  the  sixth  and  seventh  heats 
of  this  race  and  convinced  me  that  I  had  not  overstepped 
the  mark  when  I  bought  him.  That  was  the  last  race  he 
trotted  that  season.  I  sent  him  to  Long  Island  to  be  win- 
tered, where  he  was  jogged  and  well  cared  for  until  the 
following  sj)ring.  He  was  then  allowed  to  serve  a  few  mares 
before  leaving  Long  Island,  after  which  I  took  him  in  hand, 
trotted  a  few  ^preparatory  races,  and  went  to  Chicago,  at 
which  place  the  grand  circuit  of  that  year  properly  began, 
my  idea  being  to  trot  him  in  his  class  all  through  circuit, 
feeling  confident  that  he  would  make  a  record  and  perform 
in  a  manner  that  would  justify  all  I  claimed  concerning  him. 
Wedgewood  did  more  than  this,  for  from  Chicago  to 
Hartford,  or  in  other  words  from  Lake  Michigan  to  the 
Atlantic  Ocean,  he  trotted  and  won  every  race  for  his  class 
in  the  grand-circuit  meeting,  placing  a  succession  of  victo- 
ries to  his  credit  that  have  never  been  equaled  by  any  trot- 
ting stallion,  as  he  was  successful  at  Chicago,  Cleveland, 
Buffalo,  Rochester,  Springfield,  and  Hartford,  and  to  show 
the  wonderful  endurance  of  this  horse  I  may  state  that  in 
these  six  races,  the  number  of  heats  trotted  Avas  twenty- 
nine,  or  an  average  of  five  to  a  race.  In  the  Chicago  race, 
I  had  only  Lucy  and  Katie  Middleton  as  opponents,  and  as 
Wedgewood  had  the  foot  of  these  two  he  won  in  straight 
heats,  the  time  of  his  best  mile  being  2:21.  It  may  be  noted 
that  in  this  mile  he  reduced  his  record  of  the  previous  year 
two  and  one  -half  seconds .    At  Cleveland  there  was  a  remark- 


178  LIFE   WITH   THE  TROTTERS. 

ably  strong  field  to  start  against,  as  the  lot  contained  Ken- 
tucky Wilkes,  Deck  Wright,  Kitty  Bates,  Palma,  and 
Katie  Middle  ton.  By  this  time  I  learned  that  to  give  Wedge- 
wood  a  seveie  first  heat,  either  in  his  work  or  in  a  race 
seemed  to  distress  him  very  much.  I  thereupon  concluded 
that  the  best  way  to  win  with  him  was  to  lay  him  up  until 
I  saw  that  he  was  in  condition  to  do  his  best.  He  was  rather 
a  close-made  horse,  sometimes  would  not  sweat  out  freely, 
and  was  rather  slow  about  emiDtying  himself.  When  I 
would  first  take  him  out  for  work  it  would  seem  as  though 
it  was  impossible  to  make  him  extend  himself,  and  if  I 
drove  him  hard  heats  he  would  be  very  much  distressed, 
both  in  \^dnd  and  limbs.  He  being  the  favorite  over  the 
field  in  the  Cleveland  race  I  expected  a  battle  and  was  not 
disappointed,  as  I  got  all  T  had  bargained  for,  and  more  too. 
My  opponents  gave  me  the  best  they  had  in  hand  and  the 
judges  annoyed  me  all  they  could  by  trying  to  compel  me 
to  go  ofi'  in  the  lead  in  the  first  heat  and  win  all  the  time. 
I  think  it  is  all  right  for  the  judges  to  see  that  everybody 
tries  to  win  when  they  can  but  I  believe  that  the  driver 
and  the  owner  of  a  horse  are  the  best  judges  of  how  and 
when  to  win  with  their  own  horse.  It  seems  to  me  that  if 
a  man  pays  10  per  cent,  entrance  money  he  ought  to  have 
the  privilege  of  saying  how  his  horse  shall  be  driven,  pro- 
vided of  course  that  he  is  trying  to  win.  Some  people 
may  get  back  with  the  remark  that  men  lay  their  horses  up 
in  heats  to  work  the  pool-box.  I  wish  to  deny  right  here 
that  I  ever  drove  a  horse  a  heat  in  the  interest  of  the  i:»ool- 
box.  I  never  i)layed  my  horse,  for  or  against,  in  a  heat 
and  I  never  saw  a  man  that  did  do  it  make  a  great  deal  of 
money  at  the  game.  In  this  race  I  backed  my  horse  for 
the  race  right  from  the  start  and  went  out  to  lay  him  up 
the  first  heat,  which  I  did,  but  it  seemed  to  me,  in  this  heat 
that  he  could  not  go  much,  Kentucky  Wilkes  winning  in 
2:22.  Then  I  detenuined  to  try  to  win  the  second  one,  but 
when  I  scored  wp  with  AVedgewood  I  found  that  he  had  no 
speed,  and  I  thereupon  made  up  my  mind  to  lay  him  up 


LIFE   WITH   THE   TROTTERS.  179 

again.  Before  we  got  the  word  the  judges  called  me  to  the 
stand  and  lectured  me  roundly,  saying  they  wanted  me  to 
try  and  win  right  there  and  then.  When  they  gave  the 
word  Wedgewood  threw  off  one  of  his  toe-weights,  and  I 
made  no  effort,  Kitty  Bates  winning  in  2:24^.  In  this  heat 
Wedgewood  acted  to  me  as  though  he  never  would  win  a 
heat.  The  judges  called  me  into  the  stand  again  and  said  they 
were  thinking  of  taking  the  horse  away  from  me.  I  told 
them  very  i)lainly  that  they  might  expel  me,  but  that  I 
would  not  give  the  horse  up ;  that  I  was  trying  to  win  with 
him,  that  I  had  my  money  bet  on  him,  and  I  further  added 
that  I  did  not  proi^ose  to  be  treated  in  that  manner.  I  told 
them  they  could  investigate  the  matter  if  they  wished  and  if 
they  found  that  I  was  not  trying  to  win,  they  could  punish 
me,  but  give  uj)  the  horse  I  would  not. 

By  this  time  the  boys  had  taken  Wedgewood  to  the 
stable,  where  I  followed.  He  seemed  quite  distressed,  did 
not  sweat  out  any,  and  in  several  ways  convinced  me  that 
he  was  out  of  condition.  I  took  two  pails  of  warm  water 
and  gave  him  a  shower-bath  with  it,  and  after  that  gave 
him  a  thorough  rubbing  with  hot  Pond' s  Extract,  and  went 
out  and  scored  up  for  the  third  heat,  but  did  not  get  the 
word  until  the  judges  had  given  me  another  good  lecture. 
I  state  this  to  show  how  far  wrong  the  judges  sometimes 
are.  When  we  got  the  word.  Deck  Wright  sped  away  with 
the  lead.  I  never  made  a  move  with  my  horse,  and  Wright 
won  the  heat  in  2:22|.  When  I  turned  into  the  stretch  in 
this  heat  I  sxDoke  to  Wedgewood,  and  for  the  first  time  in 
the  race,  he  showed.that  he  had  his  speed.  After  the  heat  was 
over,  I  told  Mr.  Al  Carlisle  to  get  a  few  pool-tickets  on 
him,  as  I  believed  he  would  win.  By  this  time  the  judges 
had  exhausted  their  fund  of  talk,  concluded  that  Wedge- 
wood was  unable  to  win,  and  said  nothing  more  to  me.  In 
scoring  for  the  fourth  heat,  Wedgewood  showed  plenty  of 
speed.  When  the  word  was  given  I  trailed  to  the  half-mile 
pole,  there  cut  him  loose,  and  he  won  handily  in  2:22  He 
won  the  next  heat  in  2:23^,  and  the  last  in  2:24.    No  matter 


180  LIFE   WITH  THE   TEOTTEES. 

liow  hard  I  might  have  tried  in  the  first  part  of  the  race, 
he  woukl  not  have  won  a  heat,  and,  I  believe,  would  have 
hurt  his  chances  of  winning  the  race. 

The  following  week  we  went  to  Buffalo,  and  the  same 
field  of  horses  had  a  fight  that  would  do  credit  to  any  field 
of  trotters  now.  In  the  betting  Wedgewood  sold  even 
against  the  field,  and  from  what  I  saw  about  the  pool-boxes 
before  we  started  I  made  up  my  mind  that  my  opi^onents 
were  there  to  give  me  a  battle  royal,  and  the  result  proved 
that  I  did  not  make  any  mistake.  The  only  error  they  did 
make  was  that  instead  of  ' '  bunching  their  hits' '  as  they 
say  in  the  jorize-ring,  they  sparred  with  each  other  while  I 
laid  up,  and  at  the  finish  they  fell  victims  to  A¥edgewood's 
gameness  and  speed.  Kitty  Bates  won  the  first  heat  in  2:19, 
knocking  several  seconds  off  her  record,  and  in  the  second 
heat  that  world-renowned  campaigner  Deck  Wright  made 
his  star  performance,  winning  in  2:19|,  which  is  his  record 
to  this  day.  The  third  heat  Kentucky  Wilkes  w^oii  in  2: 21  J, 
which  is  also  his  best  mark.  In  these  three  heats  I  had  not 
made  a  move,  but  when  they  scored  for  the  fourth  Wedge- 
wood  and  myself  had  on  the  war  paint,  and  we  needed  it, 
as  Kentucky  Wilkes  gave  us  such  a  fight  that  from  that  day 
to  this  he  has  been  always  borne  in  my  mind  as  not  only 
one  of  the  best  sons  of  that  greatest  of  all  sires  Geo. 
Wilkes,  but  I  believe  the  gamest  AYilkes  that  I  ever  saw. 
Wedgewood  and  Wilkes  fought  the  heat  from  start  to 
finish,  both  horses  being  driven  for  all  they  were  worth, 
and  at  no  time  in  the  heat  was  there  daylight  between  them. 
Wilkes  broke  in  the  last  twenty -five  yards,  and  Wedge- 
wood beat  him  to  the  stand  in  2:21|^.  I  made  wp  my  mind 
that  this  would  about  finish  Wilkes  for  that  day,  as  he  had 
gone  four  heats  and  had  been  first  or  second  in  every  one, 
but  I  counted  wrong.  When  they  said  "  go  "  in  the  fifth 
heat  he  immediately  moved  up  to  the  front,  out-trotted 
Wedgewood  to  the  half-mile  pole  about  a  length,  and  from 
there  to  the  judges'  stand  they  fought  out  another  desperate 
finish  in  which  AVedgewood  beat  him  in  2:20. 


LIFE  WITH  THE  TROTTERS.  181 

By  this  time  I  had  made  up  my  mind  that  in  Wilkes  I 
had  an  oi^x^onent  that  it  would  hardly  do  to  overlook.  He 
did  not  show  the  slightest  disposition  to  surrender  at  any 
part  of  the  mile,  and  AVedgewood  only  beat  him  in  the  last 
stride,  Mr.  E.  H.  Brodhead  the  o^vner  of  Kentucky 
Wilkes  who  lived  in  Milwaukee,  was  unable  to  be  present 
and  see  the  gallant  fight  his  horse  made,  but  his  interests 
were  ably  represented  by  my  friend  H.  D.  McKinney,  who 
ably  seconded  Kentucky  Wilkes,  contesting  every  inch  of 
the  ground  on  the  quarter  stretch  and  under  the  judges' 
stand.  Mr.  McKinney  protested  everything  that  day,  in- 
cluding all  the  heats  I  won  and  those  I  laid  up,  telling  me 
afterward  he  did  this  for  two  reasons,  to  keep  in  X3ractice 
on  the  law  jDoints  and  to  be  sure  that  no  technicalities  were 
overlooked.  There  was  no  chance  for  Johnny  Grier  to  miss  a 
point,  as  Henry  was  there  with  the  laws  and  rules. 

In  scoring  for  the  deciding  heat,  everybody  was  deter- 
mined to  get  away  first.  The  judges  scolded,  threatened, 
and  at  last  fined  several  of  the  drivers.  When  the  word 
was  given  there  was  a  general  scrimmage  to  the  quarter 
pole,  in  which  everybody  indulged  and  the  hickory  flew  in 
a  manner  to  lead  the  spectators  to  believe  that  they  Avere 
looking  at  a  toothpick  factory  in  oi^eration.  Deck  Wright, 
who  was  always  famous  for  his  ability  to  hurdle,  outdid 
Mmself  in  this  case.  By  the  time  we  reached  tlie  half-mile 
pole,  they  were  strung  out,  and  the  race  was  again  between 
Kentucky  Wilkes  and  Wedgewood.  Whether  McKinney' s 
coaching  or  Grier*  s  natural  disx^osition  to  see  how  fast  he 
could  drive  a  horse  did  it- 1  don't  know,  but  if  I  had  not 
known  Grier,  I  should  have  imagined  from  the  way  in 
which  he  hustled  Kentucky  Wilkes  along  that  he  was  a  Dan 
Mace.  He  out-trotted  me  through  the  third  quarter  a  little, 
and  as  we  turned  into  the  stretch,  took  me  right  up  against  the 
inside  fence.  From  there  to  the  stand  the  horses  changed 
position  at  least  half  a  dozen  times.  First  one  was  ahead 
and  then  the  other,  but  in  the  final  struggle  Wedgewood 
showed  in  front  at  the  wire  by  a  lieaid  in  2:20^. 


182  LIFE   WITH   THE   TROTTERS. 

The  following  week  at  Rochester  we  struck  some  new 
talent  in  Wedgewood'  s  race,  which  we  disj)osed  of  without 
much  trouble,  winning  in  four  heats,  Kitty  Bates  taking 
the  first.  In  the  second  heat  of  this  race  Wedgewood  re- 
duced his  record  to  2:19^,  after  which  he  trotted  the  third 
heat  in  2:20,  and  the  fourth  in  2:23,  winning  easily.  In 
this  race  I  made  one  of  the  greatest  mistakes  of  my  life.  I 
was  more  than  ever  convinced  that  for  Wedgewood  to  go  a 
good  race  he  must  be  laid  up  at  least  one  heat,  and  maybe 
a  little  more,  it  depending  a  good  deal  on  his  condition. 
The  newspaper  reporters  and  a  few  others  who  go  to  the 
races  commenced  to  abuse  me  roundly;  said  that  I  was  driv- 
ing Wedgewood  simply  in  the  interests  of  the  pool-box ; 
declared  that  the  judges  ought  to  comj^el  me  to  win  in 
straight  heats  with  him,  and  if  I  refused  or  did  not  do  it, 
take  the  horse  away  from  me.  This  did  not  affect  me  much, 
as  long  ago  when  I  was  a  boy  and  worked  for  Mr.  Simmons, 
I  once  went  to  him,  complaining  that  the  newspapers  had 
criticised  me  very  severely,  and  he  said  to  me :  ' '  Well, 
Splan,  if  you  are  going  to  make  your  living  out  of  the  pub- 
lic, you  win  be  bound  to  be  criticised,  and  sometimes  very 
severely,  but  you  can  rest  assured  of  one  thing — jou  had 
better  have  them  criticise  you  severely  than  to  say  nothing 
at  all  about  you."  Mr.  Simmons  told  me  many  a  good 
thing,  but  I  always  considered  this  one  the  best.  I  don't 
believe  that  newspaj)er  criticism  can  make  or  unmake  a  man. 
If  he  is  made  of  good  stuff,  all  the  news^^apers  in  the  world 
can't  write  him  down,  and  if  he  is  made  of  soft  material 
there  is  no  real  merit.  The  higher  the  newspapers  write 
him  up,  the  harder  he  will  fall  when  he  comes  down,  as  he 
is  certain  to  do.  A  friend  of  mine  who,  like  the  newspaper 
reporters,  thought  I  could  win  whenever  I  liked,  came  to 
me  at  Springfield,  and  said  that  as  a  personal  favor  to  him 
he  would  like  me  to  win  in  three  straight  heats ;  and  to 
please  him,  and  thinking  XDerhaps  I  could  drag  it  off  in 
three  heats,  I  i^ut  my  money  on  my  horse  and  started  out 
with  that  determination.     The  track  was  soft  and  deep  and 


LIFE   WITH    THE   TROTTERS.  183 

the  day  very  liot.  I  tried  for  the  first  heat.  Deck  Wright 
did  some  trotting  and  a  great  deal  of  running,  and  beat  me 
to  the  stand  in  2:20|,  and  the  Judges  gave  him  the  heat.  I 
punished  Edgewood  in  this  heat,  and  drove  him  for  his  life, 
and  when  it  was  finished  he  was  a  good  deal  distressed. 
The  next  heat  he  beat  Wright  in  2:23^,  but  at  the  finish  he 
was  so  badly  distressed  that  I  decided  to  lay  him  uj)  the 
next  heat.  I  took  him  down  under  a  tree,  and  Orrin  Hickok, 
who  had  some  money  on  him,  went  along  and  helped  cool 
out  the  horse.  I  got  plenty  of  warm  water  and  gave 
Wedgewood  a  shower  bath,  took  him  over  to  the  bank  of 
the  river  and  walked  him  there  in  the  shade.  It  seemed  as 
though  he  never  would  stop  blowing,  and  he  came  as  near 
having  the  thumps  as  a  horse  very  well  could.  ^Vlien  the 
bell  rang  he  was  still  very  much  distressed,  and  I  went  to 
the  track  determined  to  lay  him  up,  no  matter  what  hap- 
pened. I  did  so  and  Deck  Wright  won  in  2: 23 J,  I  sim^Dly 
saving  my  distance.  By  the  time  they  rung  the  bell  for  the 
next  heat,  Wedgewood  was  a  good  deal  better,  and  it  looked 
as  though  he  might  have  a  chance  to  win.  When  the  word 
was  given  the  others  went  off  in  front  and  I  trailed  to  the 
half-mile  post,  but  drove  from  there  home,  beating  Wright 
in  2:23|.  In  the  next  heat  Deck  Wright  was  first  to  the 
stand,  in  2:2CJ.  He  did  not  do  as  much  running  as  in  the 
first  heat,  and  I  think  to  this  day  was  entitled  to  the  last 
heat,  but  the  judges  took  it  from  him'andgave  it  to  Wedge- 
wood. I  thereuiDon  made  the  resolve  that  in  any  race  I  might 
ever  drive,  no  remarks  that  the  public  might  make  and  no 
criticism  that  might  be  written  about  me  in  the  newspapers 
would  ever  have  the  least  effect  as  to  how  I  should  manage 
my  horse 

I  do  not  wish  to  be  understood  as  saying  that  I  will  not 
take  advice,  because  I  am  always  ready  to  do  so,  and  have 
often  asked  it,  but  what  I  do  wish  to  say  is,  that  I  should 
be  the  judge  of  who  is  the  one  to  give  me  the  advice.  I 
think  it  a  good  thing  for  the  trainer  and  driver  to  counsel  with 
competent  persons.  If  you  have  a  particular  case  in  hand  and 


184  LIFE   WITH   THE   TROTTEES. 

you  don't  seem  to  get  on  as  well  with  it  as  you  could  wish, 
pick  out  the  man  that  you  think  would  be  the  most  liable  to 
be  well  posted  on  that  particular  subject  and  go  and  get  his 
opinion.  You  are  not  obliged  to  follow  it  after  you  get  it, 
and  in  finding  out  his  oxDinion,  you  may  learn  something. 
I  have  many  a  time  asked  advice  from  different  j^eo^Dle,  and 
have  received  some  that  has  been  of  great  value  to  me,  and 
to  illustrate  this  I  may  state  an  experience  that  I  had  with 
Dan  Mace  on  one  occasion.  It  was  when  Hopeful  first  came 
on  the  turf.  I  saw  Mace  drive  him,  and  also  some  other 
j)eople  try  their  hand,  and  he  seemed  to  me  to  be  very  no- 
tional about  scoring.  In  talking  with  Mace  about  it,  he  ac- 
knowledged that  he  was,  and  he  told  me  what  the  jDeculiar- 
ity  was.  He  said  Ho^ieful  could  not  bear  to  have  another 
horse  score  up  head-and-head  with  him  to  get  the  word,  and 
in  such  an  emergency  he  was  almost  sure  to  break  or  pace. 
He  told  me  the  way  to  do  was  to  take  Hoi)eful  down  behind 
the  other  horses,  and  bring  him  uj)  on  a  bulge — that  is,  to 
let  him  go  as  fast  as  he  could,  and  if  he  was  within  striking 
distance  to  take  the  word,  and  Hopeful  with  his  extreme 
speed  would  be  able  to  rush  by  almost  any  horse,  and  take 
the  pole  from  him. 

I  never  thought  any  more  of  this  until  a  race  when  I  was 
asked  to  drive  Hopeful  after  he  had  lost  two  heats.  The 
first  time  I  scored  down  I  turned  round  head  and  head  with 
the  other  horse,  but  at  the  wire  Hopeful  broke,  and  paced. 
That  brought  to  mind  the  conversation  I  had  with  Mace  two 
years  ago,  and  I  resolved  to  act  on  what  he  told  me.  I  went 
up  and  turned  him  round,  as  Mace  had  directed  me,  follow- 
ing his  instructions  as  nearly  as  I  could,  and  when  the 
horses  came  to  the  wire,  the  others  were  going  about  a  2:25 
gait,  and  Hopeful  was  about  at  a  2:22  gait,  they  j)ulling 
back,  and  Hopeful  going  at  full  sail.  I  nodded  for  the 
word,  the  judges  said  "go,"  and  before  it  was  cold  out  of 
their  mouths  Hopeful  had  the  pole  and  was  never  headed. 
Mace  always  said  :  "If  Hopeful  is  in  the  lead,  and  another 
man  comes  along  head-and-head  with  you,  take  him  right  out, 


LIFE   WITH  THE   TROTTERS.  185 

and  after  you  get  in  front  ease  way  on  him,  keep  him  there, 
and  don't  let  the  other  horse  get  too  close  to  you."  Later  in 
the  season  Mace  had  Hopeful  at  Buffalo,  and  as  he  had  a 
misunderstanding  with  the  association  there  he  declined  to 
drive  the  horse.  There  was  a  great  deal  of  talk  about  who 
was  to  drive  him,  etc.,  one  paper  stating  that  Dan  would 
send  for  his  brother  Ben.  Dan  came  to  my  room  and  said 
to  me  :  "I  think  this  association  has  been  treating  me  badly 
and  I  won't  satisfy  them  well  enough  to  drive  over  their 
track.  I  \^ant  you  to  drive  Hopeful.  I  think  there  will  be 
pretty  fair  betting  on  the  race.  He  will  have  no  trouble  to 
win,  and  we  will  try  and  get  ourselves  some  money."  There 
was  nothing  said  in  public  about  my  driving  Hopeful  until 
the  bell  rang  for  the  horses  to  come  out,  when  I  appeared 
behind  Hopeful  and  won  the  first  heat  easily.  In  going 
away  in  the  second  heat  I  took  him  back  a  trifle,  and  when 
the  judges  said  "go"  steadied  him  around  the  turn  and 
Great  Eastern  rushed  up  head-and-head  with  him.  The 
moment  he  did  this  Hopeful  broke.  Great  Eastern  took  the 
pole  and  I  could  not  get  Hojjef  ul  to  try  to  beat  him  after  he 
had  lost  the  lead.  AVhen  I  got  out  of  the  sulky  I  told  Mace 
it  was  my  fault  that  I  lost  the  heat.  He  said :  "Don't  tell 
anyone,  as  they  all  think  that  Eastern  will  beat  him, 
and  we  will  have  a  good  chance  to  win  something."  When 
they  scored  for  the  next  heat  I  had  the  long  sights  on  Hope- 
ful and  when  they  said  "go"  his  head  was  at  Great  East- 
ern' s  heel,  but  when  they  struck  the  first  turn  he  was  in  the 
lead  and  if  Rarus  himself  had  been  there  after  him  he  would 
not  have  iDeen  going  faster.  I  took  him  back  there,  but  I 
had  never  let  Eastern  get  closer  than  within  three  lengths  of 
me,  and  won  the  heat  without  an  effort.  The  last  heat  I 
followed  the  same  tactics,  and  he  won  the  race.  I  doubt 
very  much  if  he  would  have  done  so  if  it  had  not  been  for 
what  Mace  told  me. 

There  are  a  great  many  little  things  about  horses  that  it 
takes  time  for  a  man  to  learn.  Of  course  I  think  the  man 
that  is  driving  every  day  and  is  behind  a  great  many  differ- 


186  LIFE  WITH   THE  TEOTTEKs. 

ent  horses  has  a  sort  of  knack,  and  gets  on  to  a  horse' s 
Ijeculiarities  very  quickly.  That  was  one  of  Mace's  strong 
points.  He  would  look  a  trotter  over  and  tell  at  a  glance 
a!)out  what  sort  of  a  horse  he  was.  There  was  another  thing 
about  Mace  that  a  good  many  people  overlooked,  and  that 
was  that  if  he  was  out  to  trot  or  work  with  you  he  was  study- 
ing your  horse  at  every  opxDortunity,  and  if  there  was  any 
peculiarity  about  him  he  was  i)retty  apt  to  see  it,  or  in  other 
words  he  would  try  to  get  the  best  of  everything  that  was 
going.  He  said  to  me  once,  when  I  was  a  boy:  "  AVlien- 
ever  you  go  into  a  fight  with  a  man,  the  first  thing  you  do 
is  to  find  out  what  kind  of  tools  he  is  going  to  have,  and  be 
sure  and  hit  him  first.''  That  was  invariably  Mace' s  way 
in  a  race.  He  found  out  all  he  could  about  the  other  man' s 
horse  and  his  ability  and  was  j)repared  to  take  advantage 
of  all  the  weak  things.  In  regard  to  this  j)eculiarity  of 
Hopeful's  that  Mace  told  me  of,  and  that  I  learned  when  I 
came  to  drive  him  to  make  use  of,  I  was  also  i)repared  to 
take  advantage  of  it  when  Hopeful  came  to  trot  against 
Rarus,  as  I  never  allowed  Mace  to  go  up  and  come  down 
with  me  on  a  bulge.  No  matter  how  far  he  went  back,  I 
went  back  and  turned  with  him.  Mace  was  pretty  cute, 
and  often  tried  his  old  tactics,  but  I  had  just  as  good  a 
horse,  if  not  a  little  better  than  he,  and  I  had  him  at  a  dis- 
advantage. I  often  heard  peoj^le  say  that  Hopeful  always 
made  a  better  race  against  any  horse  than  he  would  against 
Rarus,  and  I  think  that  was  the  reason  why.  The  man  who 
drove  Rarus  was  well  acquainted  with  Hopeful,  both  from 
hearsay  and  by  having  driven  him,  something  that  might 
not  seem  like  much  of  an  advantage,  but  it  would  be  enough 
to  win  a  close  race. 

Returning  to  the  story  of  Wedgewood  and  his  races,  I 
may  say  that  after  the  contest  at  Springfield,  where  I  dis- 
tressed the  horse  somewhat  in  an  effort  to  please  a  friend, 
he  went  to  Hartford,  trotted  five  heats  there,  and  nuide  the 
star  ^performance  of  his  life  against  a  fresh  lot  of  timber, 
which  included  Charley  Champlain,  Iron  Age,   Knox  Boy, 


LIFE   WITH   THE   TROTTEES.  187 

Golden  Girl,  and  Keeiie  Jim,  our  late  opponents,  Patclien 
and  Deck  Wright  being  also  on  hand  and  in  better  form 
than  ever.  This  was  one  of  the  betting  races  of  the  cam- 
paign, and  the  public  and  my  oj)ponents  concluded  that 
Wedge  wood  must  be  getting  stale  and  oif  on  account  of  his 
race  at  SiDriUgheld,  and  as  he  was  favorite  over  the  held, 
they  took  the  field  for  all  there  was  in  it.  In  his  prelimi- 
nary work  at  Hartford  Wedge  wood  iDleased  me  in  every  way. 
Among  the  number  on  my  side  was  uncle  Ben  Wright 
who  again  went  through  a  Turkish  bath  performance  on 
account  of  the  precarious  situations  and  the  hazardous 
events  of  the  race.  It  Avas  in  this  race  that  Doc.  Appleby 
made  one  of  the  most  original  remarks  and  at  the  same 
time  one  of  the  most  ai3propriate  ones  on  record.  The  Doc- 
tor did  not  know  exactly  what  horse  he  wanted  to  play 
when  the  race  began,  but  was  sure  that  he  did  not  want 
Wedgewood.  With  Johnny  Murphy  behind  Patclien  he 
concluded  to  back  that  horse,  and  for  a  while  the  chances 
looked  roseate.  Then  Deck  Wright  took  a  heat  in  such 
commanding  style,  that  he  looked  all  over  a  winner,  and 
Mr.  Appleby  made  another  plunge  in  that  direction,  and 
backed  the  horse  from  the  West  for  enough  to  get  back  all 
that  he  had  put  on  Patchen  and  land  a  goodly  pile  beside 
if  Deck  Wright  won.  When  Patchen  captured  the  third 
heat  the  Doctor  stole  another  base  and  played  the  field 
against  Wedgewood,  a  horse  that  had  not  yet  come  to  the 
front.  After  Wedgewood  had  won  the  race  and  someone 
asked  the  Doctor  wiiat  he  had  done  for  himself,  he  said: 
"I  have  done  badly.  I  kept  climbing  from  one  rotten 
branch  to  another  until  finally  the  whole  tree  fell  on  me." 

I  determined  to  follow  my  old  plan  and  lay  up,  and 
Murphy  showed  the  boys  what  he  had  in  hand,  by  winning 
the  first  heat  with  Patclien  in  2:18|.  He  led  all  the  way  in 
the  second  heat  to  the  distance  stand,  where  he  broke,  and 
Deck  Wright  beat  him  out  in  2:20^.  I  contented  myself 
with  dropping  inside  tln^  distance  flag.     In  scoring  tor  the 

third  heat  I  determined  to  try  and  win,  but  in  the  score 
13 


188  LIFE   WITH   THE   TEOTTEES. 

Wedgewood  broke,  and  I  had  no  thought  that  the  judges 
would  give  the  word.  He  came  galloping  to  the  stand  and 
they  said  "go"  with  the  horses  strung  out  like  Brown's 
cows.  Keene  Jim  had  at  least  twenty  yards  the  lead  of 
everybody,  and  sped  away  as  though  he  did  not  intend  to 
be  caught.  Patchen  broke  immediately  after  the  word  was 
given.  I  was  sure  Murphy  would  not  try  to  win  the  heat 
with  him,  and  if  he  did  I  was  positive  they  would  beat  him, 
so  felt  no  uneasiness,  thinking  that  Keene  Jim  a  horse  that 
had  not  yet  won  and  was  not  dangerous  in  the  race,  would 
take  the  heat,  but  I  figured  wrong.  Murj)liy  caught  his 
horse  and  set  sail.  He  overhauled  Keene  Jim  at  the  distance- 
stand  and  beat  him  out  in  2:20|. 

From  where  I  sat  the  race  looked  a  little  ' '  binding. ' '  Here 
was  Patchen  going  every  heat  in  2:20,  or  better,  and  he  had 
just  won  the  third  heat  in  2:20^.  It  was  a  prosjject  which,  to 
say  the  least,  I  saw  nothing  very  rosy  about,  with  myself  and 
all  my  friends  up  to  our  necks  in  the  pool-box,  and  from 
what  I  knew  of  the  gentlemen  driving  the  other  horses  they 
would  be  delighted  to  pour  ice  water  down  our  backs.  I 
saw  that  I  had  a  few  first-class  heelers  to  cool  Wedgewood 
out  after  this  heat.  Jack  Phillips  had  the  ]Drice  of  a  few 
barrels  of  flour  on  the  horse,  and  after  the  heat  he  came 
down  to  the  cooling  ground  and  took  off  his  coat  in  about 
the  same  manner  I  had  seen  him  do  when  he  was  a  farmer 
boy  around  Watertown.  He  told  me  to  sit  down  in  the 
shade  and  cool  myself  out,  and  he  would  see  to  the  cooling- 
out  of  the  horse.  This  is  a  matter  that  people  sometimes  over- 
look. If  you  have  driven  a  horse  a  hard  heat  and  you  are 
tired,  and  your  nerves  unstrung,  it  is  not  likely  to  aid  you 
much  to  get  out  of  the  sulky  and  go  to  work  to  help  cool 
out  the  horse.  I  think  that  after  a  severe  heat  a  driver 
needs  some  lime  for  rest  and  to  get  his  nerves  in  order  for 
another  trial.  While  as  a  rule  the  drivers  of  trotting  horses 
are  necessarily  men  of  strict  sobriety,  it  is  notwithstanding 
true  that  in  situations  of  this  kind  some  of  them  at  times 
resort  to  a  stimulant  to  brace  themselves  up  for  the  impend- 


LIFE  TVITII  THE  TROTTERS.  189 

ing  struggle.  In  all  my  life  I  have  never  tasted  a  drop  of 
liquor,  and  as  I  do  not  use  tobacco  in  any  form,  this  stim- 
ulus is  denied  me,  so  that  in  my  case,  the  only  relief  in  situ- 
ations of  the  kind  mentioned  is  that  of  solid  rest  to  mind 
and  body.  I  do  not  mean  to  say  I  do  not  think  that  there 
is  no  time  when  something  of  a  mild  stimulant  will  do  a  man 
good,  and  I  believe  there  have  been  occasions  after  driving 
a  severe  heat  when  a  glass  of  wine  has  been  a  good  thing, 
just  as  it  is  to  celebrated  riders  of  runners.  I  have  given 
my  horses  champagne  and  Seltzer  water  as  a  mixed  drink, 
and  found  it  one  of  the  most  beneficial  things  to  a  tired  horse 
I  have  ever  tried. 

While  Jack  Phillips  with  the  rubbing  cloth  and  Turner 
with  a  sponge  and  Mace  as  general  director  of  the  work 
were  engaged  on  Wedgewood,  Uncle  Ben  and  Terry  Barden 
and  Al  Carlisle  sat  around  in  the  background  giving  us  the 
latest  reports  from  the  pool-box,  and  the  general  public 
looked  on,  feeling  that  for  once  the  most  noted  talent  on  the 
turf  were  in  a  tight  place,  and  it  seemed  to  me  as  though 
they  rather  enjoyed  it.  They  regarded  us  with  looks  which 
seemed  to  say,  "Well,  you  have  often  had  us  in  tight 
places;  how  do  you  like  it?" 

When  the  bell  rang  for  the  last  heat  and  the  horses 
showed  up  in  front  of  the  judges'  stand,  a  row  of  people 
stood  opposite  with  about  as  much  interest  in  the  expression 
of  their  faces  as  you  will  often  see.  I  told  the  judges  before 
getting  the  word  that  this  was  a  race  in  which  there  was  a 
great  deal  of  money  bet  on  Wedgewood,  and  as  he  was  a 
horse  that  never  caused  any  trouble  in  scoring  or  anything 
of  that  kind,  I  could  not  see  why  he  was  not  entitled  to  his 
I)osition  when  the  word  was  given,  and  I  asked  them  as  a 
special  favor  to  have  the  kindness  to  see  that  he  had  his 
place  when  they  said  "go."  Deck  Wright  ruslied  away 
with  the  lead,  but  pulled  up  at  the  turn  and  gave  his  place 
to  Patchen.  In  doing  that  he  convinced  me  that  it  was 
Patchen  to  win  and  Deck  Wright  to  hold  me.  I  concluded 
that  for  the  safety  of  my  chance,  as  well  as  for  the  safety  of 


190  LIFE  TVITII   THE  TROTTERS. 

my  sulky,  it  would  be  well  to  keep  away  from  Deck  Wright. 
I  therefore  trailed  away  behind  him  until  we  turned  into  the 
stretch,  Patchen  still  at  the  pole,  Deck  Wright  outside. 
After  we  rounded  into  the  stretch  I  ]pulled  Wedge  wood  well 
out  into  the  track,  and  as  they  say  on  the  running  turf,  I 
sat  down  and  commenced  to  ride  him.  I  never  saw  him 
show  any  more  determination  than  he  did  right  there. 
Every  time  I  spoke  he  responded,  but  while  he  was  doing 
that  Murj^hy  was  getting  Patchen  one  of  those  drives  that 
he  is  noted  for.  It  took  Wedge  wood  all  the  way  to  the  wire 
to  beat  him,  which  he  finally  did  by  a  head  in  2:19,  the  best 
and  fastest  heat  he  ever  trotted.  Between  Patchen' s  trot- 
ting, Deck  Wright's  running,  and  the  hustling  tactics  of  the 
others  they  kept  me  busy  the  balance  of  the  race,  but 
Wedge  wood  won,  going  the  fifth  heat  in  2:20|^  and  the  sixth 
in  2:22|. 

This,  I  believe,  was  the  last  race  of  any  prominence  that 
Patchen  ever  took  part  in.  Patchen  was  a  horse  that  came 
to  his  speed  very  quickly,  having  never  beaten  2:23|-  until 
this  day.  He  made  this  one  skyrocket  performance,  and 
then  went  down  in  the  same  manner,  never  having  been 
heard  of  after  that  season.  Prom  Hartford  we  went  to  Bos- 
ton, where  he  beat  Wedgewood,  Driver,  Sheridan,  and  Lady 
Maud,  in  2:20|,  2:21f,  2:21|,  Driver  winning  the  third  heat 
in  2:21.  There  were  some  very  unimx^ortant  races  in  which 
he  took  part  during  the  following  month,  and  on  October  15 
he  w^ound  up  the  season  with  a  first-class  contest  at  Prospect 
Park  against  Patchen  and  Driver,  six  heats  being  required 
to  settle  the  money,  three  of  them  being  trotted  better  than 
2:20;  and  taking  into  consideration  the  time  of  the  year,  and 
the  fact  that  it  was  the  end  of  a  long  campaign,  this  was 
looked  upon  as  a  wonderful  i)erformance.  It  was  the  last 
star  race  for  Wedgewood,  Driver  and  Patchen,  and  one  of 
the  last  races  in  which  Wedgewood  took  part. 

In  this  race  I  expected  to  have  both  horses  to  battle  with. 
I  had  learned  in  a  second-hand  way  that  Mui'phy  intended 
to  lay  his  horse  up.     I  hardly  believed  that,  as  I  had  never 


LIFE   WITH  THE  TROTTERS.  191 

seen  him  do  it  before.  I  had  also  been  told  that  Johnny 
Goldsmith  was  going  to  do  the  same  thing  with  Driver.  I 
thought,  if  that  was  the  case,  it  would  be  a  good  scheme  to 
get  my  horse  well  warmed  up,  and  go  out  and  perhaps  win 
the  first  heat  without  an  effort.  I  followed  this  j)lan,  and 
when  they  said  ' '  go' '  I  cut  loose  and  won  the  first  heat, 
in  2:19|  Murphy  and  Goldsmith  did  not  make  much  of  an 
effort,  as  I  thought,  to  win,  each  one  exx)ecting  the  other 
one  to  make  a  fight.  The  next  heat  they  were  both  ready 
for  battle,  but  Wedge  wood  beat  them  in  2:19|.  In  the  third 
heat  Wedge  wood  and  Driver  trotted  a  dead  heat  in  2: 19  J, 
making  the  fastest  three  consecutive  heats  that  Wedgewood 
had  ever  trotted  in  any  race,  all  being  better  than  2:20.  After 
this  heat  Wedgewood  Avas  somewhat  distressed,  and  I  made 
up  my  mind  to  lay  him  up.  In  the  fourth  heat  Patchen  and 
Driver  finished  so  close  that  no  one  but  the  judges  could  tell 
who  won,  they  finally  giving  it  to  Patchen  in  2:21|^.  Driver 
won  the  fifth  heat  in  2:21f .  In  both  these  heats  I  was  satis- 
fied to  save  my  distance.  In  the  sixth  heat  they  all  rushed 
away  together  when  the  word  was  given  and  at  the  quarter 
pole  Patchen  broke.  From  there  to  the  stand.  Driver 
and  Wedgewood  had  a  battle  royal.  By  this  time  it  had 
grown  so  dark  that  the  judges  could  not  see  us  as  we  went 
down  the  backside,  and  it  was  a  case  of  give  and  take  all 
the  way.  These  horses  were  about  as  closely  matched  as 
anything  I  ever  saw.  They  were  both  game,  good  breakers, 
would  stand  any  amount  of  driving,  and  at  that  time  Gold- 
smith was  not  much  more  than  a  boy,  but  as  industrious  a 
fellow  with  a  horse  sulky  and  whip  as  I  have  ever  seen  since. 
Anyway,  we  fought  it  out  on  that  line,  and  Wedgewood 
beat  him  to  the  stand  and  won  the  heat  in  2:20|^. 

Wedgewood  was  a  grand  horse  for  me,  an  honest  trotter 
if  ever  there  was  one  in  the  world,  and  since  his  retirement 
from  the  turf  he  has  been  doing  great  work  in  the  stud,  as 
is  plainly  shown  by  the  character  of  his  get.  Favonia,  a 
daughter  of  his,  that  is  out  of  a  mare  by  Alexander' s  Ab- 
dallah,  was  quite  the  star  of  the  trotting  firmament  last 


192  LIFE   WITH   THE   TKOTTEES. 

season,  beating  Rosaline  Wilkes  and  all  tlie  other  cracks  she 
met,  and  making  a  record  of  2:15.  This  mare  displayed  a 
good  many  of  the  characteristics  and  qnalities  that  I  had 
noticed  in  Wedgewood,  and  as  she  was  by  my  old  favorite, 
I  took  particular  notice  of  her.  Wedgewood' s  home  is  at 
the  Hermitage  Stud  Farm,  a  magnificent  estate  near  Nash- 
ville, Tenn.,  and  there  is  no  stallion  to  whom  I  would  breed 
with  greater  confidence. 


CHAPTER    VIII. 

Trotters  with  romantic  histories  tliat  I  have  driven — Tlie  gray  gelding  Charlie 
Ford,  that  was  first  a  turt  outlaw,  then  made  a  record  of  2 :16i;  was  valued 
at  $15,000,  and  finally  sold  for  |oOO — Ford's  match  with  the  stallion  Boue- 
setter,  and  how  he  was  trained  for  it — He  is  the  only  horse  that  ever  won 
a  heat  from  Maud  S. ;  the  story  of  the  incident — The  great  race  at  Chicago 
with  Haunis,  where  "the  talent"  was  on  the  wrong  side — Adelaide,  a 
little  mare  that  had  one  remarkable  peculiarity;  no  matter  how  hot  the 
day,  or  severe  the  race,  she  would  not  sweat — Drawing  wood  into  Water- 
town,  N.  T.,  by  the  side  of  her  dam,  she  is  purchased  by  a  horseman  and 
makes  a  record  of  2:19| — A  ponj''  in  size  and  weight,  she  beats  some  of  the 
best  horses  in  the  country,  eveiy  ounce  of  her  being  race-horse  material — 
Planter  and  his  good  qualities — Tho  wonderful  affection  of  the  trotter  Bay 
for  an  old  white  horse. 

If  ever  a  horse  had  a  romantic  liistory,  the  gray  gelding 
Charley  Ford  is  the  animal.  Beginning  his  tnrf  career  by 
trotting  in  classes  where  he  was  not  entitled  to  start,  being 
■for  this  offense  expelled  from  all  National  association 
tracks,  then  found  to  have  more  speed  than  it  was  dreamed 
he  possessed,  and  for  this  reason  reinstated  after  a  great 
effort;  tlien  sold  for  $2,500  to  a  noted  Chicago  sporting 
man,  lie  passed  through  the  hands  of  several  drivers,  under 
my  management  made  a  record  of  2:16f ;  was  worth  at  one 
time  $15,000,  that  amount  in  cash  having  been  refused  for 
him;  is  the  only  horse  in  the  Avoiid  that  ever  beat  Maud  S. 
a  heat;  lost  his  speed,  and  was  sold  for  $300  when  still 
comparatively  young,  and  now  jogs  soberly  along  the  streets 
of  Chicago,  an  animal  that  never  would  be  taken  for  one 
about  whom  at  one  time  the  trotting'world  was  considerably 
excited. 

Charley  Ford  was  a  light  gray  gelding,  nearly  white,- 
stood  sixteen  hands  high,  with  as  fine  a  head  as  you  could 

(193) 


194  LIFE  WITH   THE  TROTTERS. 

lind  on  a  trotting  horse,  it  being  of  good  shape,  not  too 
large,  and  the  handsomest  eyes  that  I  ever  saw  in  a  trotter. 
He  was  bred  in  Racine  County,  Wisconsin,  and  was  sired  by 
a  horse  known  as  McKesson' s  Gray  Eagle.  When  he  was 
about  five  or  six  years  old,  a  local  driver  developed  some 
si)eed  in  the  gray  gelding,  and  he  trotted  a  few  races  under 
the  name  of  Billy  Basteder.  The  following  year,  not  being 
sujDposed  to  be  able  to  trot  to  his  record,  which  \Aas  then 
not  as  good  as  2:30,  he  was  taken  to  the  Pennsylvania  oil 
regions,  and  took  part  in  a  number  of  races.  During  that 
trip,  he  disi3layed  so  much  speed  and  gameness  over  the 
half-mile  tracks  where  he  trotted,  that  the  following  winter 
lie  was  looked  after  a  little  more  carefully,  and  along  in 
the  summer  of  1879,  he  was  brought  to  Chicago,  and  over 
the  West  Side  track  showed  a  mile  in  2:24|,whichledtohis 
purchase  by  Jerry  Monroe,  an  all-around  Chicago  sport 
Avho  knew  a  good  thing  when  he  saw  it.  That  season, 
Charley  Ford — he  having  by  this  time  having  been  given 
that  name — was  driven  in  some  races  by  Dan  Brown,  after 
which  Jimmy  Dustin  took  him  in  charge,  and  late  in  the 
fall  he  was  driven  a  time  or  two,  \  think,  by  Dan  Mace.  It 
was  during  this  season  that  the  horse  first  attracted  public 
attention.  He  trotted  a  number  of  races  in  the  grand  cir- 
cuit, and  in  the  fall  came  to  Cincinnati,  where  he  w^as 
entered  in  a  race  over  a  half-mile  track  at  that  jDlace  against 
Driver— those  two  being  the  only  starters.  It  was  this  race 
that  first  particularly  attracted  my  attention  to  Charley 
Ford,  and  made  me  think  that  he  had  in  him  the  making 
of  a  great  race-horse,  because  in  beating  Driver  he  was 
forced  to  trot  one  of  his  heats  in  2:20-^,  and  this  perfor- 
mance over  a  half-mile  track  was  equal  to  2:18  or  better 
over  one  a  mile  in  circumference. 

One  evening  the  following  winter  while  in  conversation 
with  a  number  of  Chicago  gentlemen  the  names  of  Bone- 
setter  and  Charley  Ford  were  mentioned.  Bonesetter  was 
a  bay  stallion  that  at  that  time  had  a  record  of  2:19^,  and 
was  quite  a  noted  horse.     He  belonged  to  Mr.  H.  V.  Bemis 


.  LIFE    WITH    THE   TROTTEKS.  195 

of  the  Bemis  Brewing  Compan}  ,  who  gave  for  him  $10,000. 
Mr.  Bemis  was  at  this  time  the  leading  owner  on  the  West- 
ern trotting  turf,  having  in  his  stable  such  well-known  ones 
as  Bonesetter,  Silverton,  Fred  Douglas,  Little  Brown  Jug, 
and  Sorrel  Dan,  the  two  last  named  being  pacers,  and  the 
lot  about  as  formidable  a  one  as  has  ever  been  owned  by  one 
man.  In  the  discussion  as  to  the  merits  of  Ford  and  Bone- 
setter  I  expressed  the  opinion  that  Ford  was  the  better  of 
the  two  horses,  and  from  that  came  a  match,  the  owner  of 
Ford  and  myself  backing  him  against  Bonesetter  in  a  race 
of  mile  heats,  three  in  five,  to  come  off  the  12th  day  of  June 
over  the  West  Side  track  at  Chicago,  for  $1,000  a  side  and 
the  gate  money,  Mr.  Bemis  backing  his  own  horse,  and  John 
B.  Drake,  of  the  Grand  Pacific  Hotel,  was  appointed  final 
stakeholder.  From  the  moment  the  race  was  made  until  the 
day  it  was  trotted  there  was  a  great  deal  of  talk  and  excite- 
ment and  a  large  amount  of  money  Avas  wagered  on  the 
result,  Bonesetter  being  a  favorite  in  the  betting  from  the 
start,  a  j)osition  he  held  until  the  race  came  off.  I  had  not 
seen  Ford  from  the  time  I  witnessed  his  good  work  at  Cin- 
cinnati until  after  the  race  was  made,  and  the  forfeit  imt  up. 
The  next  morning  I  went  to  his  stable,  to  look  him  over, 
and  I  found  him  in  what  seemed  to  be  rather  bad  condition. 
His  legs  were  very  much  swollen,  with  *a  great  deal  of  fever, 
and  his  system  seemed  generally  out  of  order.  While  I  was 
considering  what  course  of  treatment  to  give  him  his  groom 
applied  some  patent  lotion  to  his  legs  to  reduce  the  swell- 
ing, which  had  the  effect  of  blistering  him  in  the  most  fright- 
ful manner,  from  the  effect  of  which  his  legs  never  entirely 
recovered. 

My  first  efforts  were  directed  to  reducing  the  swelling 
and  inflammation  caused  by  the  blister,  which  was  so  pain- 
ful to  the  horse  that  he  neither  ate,  slept  nor  lay  down  for 
at  least  ten  days,  and .  it  seemed  to  me  at  one  time  that  he 
would  certainly  die  from  the  effects  of  it.  One  word  here 
about  blistering  horses.  I  have  known  in  my  time  several 
.animals  to  lose  their  lives  from  the  effects  of  a  blister.     My 


196  LIFE    WITH   THE  TROTTERS. 

rule  lias  always  been  that  if  I  want  my  horse  shod  to  get  the 
blacksmith  to  do  it.  The  same  rule  holds  good  in  case  of 
sickness.  If  my  horse  needs  blistering  or  any  other  medical 
attendance,  I  get  what  I  consider  to  be  the  best  veterinary 
surgeon  within  reach  and  let  him  take  charge  of  the  case, 
and  I  know  of  no  reason  why  this  rule  should  not  be  fol- 
lowed at  all  times.  "Everyman  his  own  lawyer"  gener- 
ally gets  the  prisoner  locked  up,  and  I  think  every  man  his 
own  doctor  Avould  be  a  great  scheme  for  the  undertakers. 
In  this  case,  that  the  horse  did  not  die  was  due,  I  am  satis- 
fied, more  to  good  luck  than  good  management.  I  called  in 
a  veterinary,  and  he  suggested  a  treatment  that  he  thought 
would  serve  to  allay  the  inflammation  and  pain.  He  man- 
aged to  effect  this  result,  but  the  swelling  never  entirely 
left  the  horse's  legs. 

As  the  season  for  training  approached,  I  commenced 
giving  Ford  moderate  exercise  on  the  road,  and  then  took 
him  to  the  West  Side  driving  Park  to  prepare  him  for  the 
race.  The  spring  being  very  backward  and  cold  and  the 
track  unfit  for  fast  work  I  made  up  my  mind  I  would  either 
have  to  hunt  another  training  ground  or  I  would  not  have 
my  horse  in  any  condition  by  the  12tli  of  June.  I  concluded 
that  Indiana  would  be  a  good  place  to  go  to,  as  they  have 
an  early  spring  and  sandy  tracks  there,  but  when  I  sug- 
gested this  to  Ford' s  owner  I  met  with  oiDposition  that  I  had 
not  expected,  as  he  did  not  see  why  a  horse  could  not  be 
prepared  Just  as  well  in  Chicago  as  at  any  other  place,  and 
freed  his  mind  to  that  effect.  I  was  so  sure  that  my  judg- 
ment was  right  that  I  told  him  to  do  one  of  two  things,  — he 
could  take  my  interest  in  the  race,  and  have  Ford  trained 
wherever  he  chose,  or  I  would  take  his  interest  in  the  race 
and  liave  my  way  about  it.  Under  this  pressure  he  finally 
consented  that  I  should  use  my  own  judgment,  and  so  I 
took  Ford  with  my  other  horses  to  Elkhart,  Ind.,  where  I 
found  a  good  half-mile  track,  first-class  stabling,  good 
roads,  and  everything  favorable  for  an  early  prei^aration. 
I  discovered  when  I  begun  to  drive  Ford  along,  that  his 


LIFE    WITH   THE   TllUTTEKS.  197 

legs  would  swell  very  badly.  This  is  the  greatest  trouble  I 
had  with  the  horse.  About  the  twelfth  of  May  I  was  able 
to  drive  him  miles  in  about  2:33.  In  watching  Ford  the 
year  before  I  saw  that  he  had  a  disposition  to  want  to  break 
and  run,  being  what  they  call  a  first-class  breaker.  This  I 
consider  a  grievous  fault  in  any  horse,  and  one  that  will 
ruin  many  horses'  chances  of  winning  where  they  would 
otherwise  get  the  money.  My  idea  about  horses  of  this 
kind  is  that  if  the  time  and  strength  expended  by  them  in 
breaking  and  catching  Avere  to  be  put  in  at  honest  trotting 
it  w^ould  give  them  a  very  much  faster  record.  I  have  heard 
people  say  that  Goldsmith  Maid  gained  when  she  broke, 
but  I  noticed  that  when  she  trotted  miles  in  2:15  or  better 
she  never  made  more  than  one  break  in  the  whole  mile. 
Deck  Wright,  Grey  Salem,  Lem  Scott,  and  all  that  tribe  of 
hurdlers  made  their  best  records  in  the  heats  in  which  they 
ran  the  least  and  trotted  the  most.  In  training  Ford,  I 
drove  him  on  a  trot  all  the  time,  never  allowing  him  to  get 
close  enough  to  the  top  of  his  speed  to  have  him  show  a 
disposition  to  break.  He  seemed  uneasy  when  a  horse  took 
him  by  the  head,  and  sometimes  when  he  was  being  out- 
trotted  tried  to  break  with  you.  I  worked  him  alone  a  great 
deal  at  first,  and  when  I  did  take  a  horse  out  to  work  with 
him  I  did  not  allow  the  other  one  to  pinch  Ford  hard  enough 
to  make  him  want  to  break. 

As  we  were  to  trot  the  match  race  with  Bonesetter  on 
the  12th  day  of  June,  I  felt  anxious  to  give  Ford  one  or  two 
races  before  that  event  came  ofl'.  I  entered  him  in  two  races, 
both  of  Avhich  he  w^on,  trotting  five  heats  in  each  race.  He 
beat  Will  Cody  over  the  Elkhart  track  a  five-heat  race  in 
which  2:30  was  the  fastest  heat,  and  he  had  all  he  could 
possibly  do  to  win.  This  race  acted  on  Ford  as  I  expected 
it  would;  made  him  a  better  horse.  The  other  race  was 
against  Lucy,  a  black  mare  owned  in  Canada,  driven  by  a 
man  named  Palmer,  and  called  among  the  boys  "The 
Queen's  Own."  They  trotted  over  the  Adrian  track,  which 
is  rather  slow,  and  Ford  won  in  five  heats  trotting  one  of 


198  LIFE    WITH   THE   TltOTTEKS. 

the  miles  in  2:25,  He  showed  me  so  Avell  on  this  occasion 
that  I  was  satisfied  that,  barring  an  accident,  he  would  beat 
Bonesetter  in  the  match.  I  had  a  man  watching  Bonesetter  all 
the  time,  and  he  wrote  me  that  the  weather  in  Chicago  had 
been  very  bad,  Bonesetter  had  been  given  bnt  little  work, 
was  high  in  flesh,  and  any  horse  t  hat  could  trot  three  heats 
in  from  2:25  to  2:22  would  certainly  win  the  money.  The 
result  of  the  race  proved  that  my  tout  knew  what  he  was 
talking  about. 

We  came  directly  from  Adrian  to  Chicago,  where  I 
found  all  the  horse  talent  very  much  excited  over  the  race, 
Bonesetter  still  having  the  call  in  the  betting.  I  don't  re- 
member of  ever  having  had  a  race  that  I  was  any  surer  that 
I  would  win  than  this  one,  and  I  not  only  put  my  own  money 
on  Ford,  but  advised  all  my  friends  to  do  so.  But  Bone- 
setter  had  such  a  hold  on  the  x^ublic  that  he  remained 
the  favorite  until  they  got  the  word,  with  the  odds  about 
$100  to  $80.  My  friend  Capt.  John  Dumas  saw  the  race  at 
Adrian  and  gave  me  $500  to  put  on  Ford,  as  he  said  he 
would  be  unable  to  attend  the  race.  A  great  many  of  my 
personal  friends  advised  me  not  to  bet  my  money,  as  they 
were  sure  Bonesetter  would  beat  Ford.  One  of  them  said 
that  he  did  not  believe  I  would  be  able  to  drive  Ford  well 
as  he  had  always  been  driven  by  a  country  boy  who  whipped 
and  run  and  scuffled  him  along,  and  that  was  the  way 
he  had  always  won  his  races.  He  thought  that  I  would 
try  to  keep  him  on  a  trot,  and  that  he  would  not  be  able  to 
get  around  the  track  fast  enough  to  head  the  other  horse. 
On  the  day  set  for  the  race  it  rained,  and  it  was  postponed 
imtil  the  following  Monday.  The  story  of  the  race  is  soon 
told — Ford  won  in  straight  heats  without  an  effort  or  with- 
out ever  being  headed.  The  best  time  was  2:23,  in  the  first 
heat.  In  this  race  Ford  was  very  steady  and  I  could  have 
driven  him  to  his  record.  Bonesetter  was  high  in  flesh  and 
several  seconds  from  the  mark.  In  training  Ford  for  this 
race  some  people  criticised  my  methods,  as  being  different 
from  the  way  other  people  had  handled  the  horse.    I  trained 


LIFE  WITH   THE   TROTTERS.  199 

him  in  the  following  manner,  and  for  the  following  reasons: 
He  was  inclined  to  be  rather  a  sluggish  horse  when  worked 
alone  and  would  not  try  to  extend  hims(;lf .  I  did  not  like 
to  work  another  horse  with  him,  as  that  ke]3t  him  pulling 
all  the  time.  I  confined  his  work  to  very  little  walking, 
short  jogs,  repeating  him  slow  miles,  and  brushing  him  the 
last  part  of  the  mile  as  fast  as  I  could  and  keep  him  on  a 
trot.  In  getting  ready  for  the  Bonesetter  match  I  drove  him 
a  mile  in  about  2:30  tv^enty  minutes  before  the  race,  letting 
him  come  the  last  half  in  about  1:10.  Some  of  the  critics  said 
I  drove  him  a  great  deal  too  fast,  but  I  had  my  watch  in  my 
hand,  and  I  knew  just  what  I  was  doing,  and  as  I  wanted 
to  be  ready  to  go  with  Bonesetter  as  fast  as  he  could  make 
me  right  from  the  start,  I  knew  that  it  would  take  good 
sharp  work  to  have  Ford  well  opened  out  for  his  effort. 
Everyone  supi30sed  that  Bonesetter  would  be  able  to  out- 
speed  Ford,  and  the.  only  hox3e  I  would  have  of  beating  ]iim 
would  be  to  force  the  pace  and  beat  him  at  the  finish,  but  I 
felt  differently,  I  wanted  to  out-trot  him  right  from  the 
start,  thinking  that  was  the  surest  way  to  get  the  money. 
Whether  or  not  my  theories  were  right.  Ford  won  the  race. 
After  that  I  trotted  Ford  several  races  through  the 
Michigan  circuit  with  more  or  less  success,  and  in  this  cam- 
paign came  across  General  Turner  and  his  wonderful  horse 
Hannis.  I  had  seen  enough  of  Hannis  and  Turner  to  know 
that  they  were  about  as  formidable  a  pair  as  a  man  would 
want  to  meet  with  a  horse  and  sulky,  and  made  up  my  mind 
that  no  matter  what  else  happened  I  would  keep  my  eye 
on  them,  whether  they  won  or  not.  I  did  so,  and  for  my 
pains  had  the  satisfaction  of  learning  enough  to  save  my 
money.  I  had  noticed  this  about  Turner's  horses, — that  in 
the  spring  he  works  them  just  enough  to  see  whether  they 
are  good  or  not,  then  he  starts  them  out  on  an  easy  cam- 
paign, or,  in  other  words,  instead  of  training  them  gets  them 
out  and  trots  them  in  public  races,  and  lets  them  trot  them- 
selves into  condition.  When  he  gets  them  to  what  he  thinks 
is  an  edge,  he  makes  a  raid  on  the  pool-box,  and  in  this 


200  LIFE   WITH   THE  TROTTEES. 

campaign  lie  f olloAved  his  old  tactics.  In  the  different  races 
that  Ford  trotted  against  Hannis,  I  saw  maneuvers  that 
made  me  believe  the  little  chestnut  stallion  was  a  much 
better  horse  than  the  public  rated  him,  and  when  I  came 
back  to  Chicago  for  the  summer  meeting,  I  found  him  entered 
in  the  same  race  with  Ford,  and  they  were  the  only  ones  of 
any  note  in  it. 

[Here,  I  think,  I  made  a  mistake  in  training  Ford.  His 
owner  and  groom  both  thought  that  I  worked  him  too 
severely  and  often  criticised  me  on  that  point.  They  said 
so  much  about  it  that  finally  I  thought  that  iDerhaps  I  was 
wrong,  and  gave  way  to  their  opinions.  This  fact,  and  a  bad 
decision  that  the  judges  made,  cost  Ford  the  race  and  his 
backers  more  money  than  I  think  was  ever  lost  on  a  trotting 
race.  A  few  days  before  the  Ford  race  came  off,  Turner  had 
Hannis  in  a  race  against  Monroe  Chief  and  Wedge  wood. 
They  finished  the  race  with.  Monroe  Chief  first,  Hannis  sec- 
ond and  Wedge  wood  last.  I  saw  enough  in  this  race  to 
convince  me  that  Hannis  was  a  race-horse  of  the  first  water, 
and  made  up  my  mind  that  he  would  certainly  trot  a  mile 
in  2:16,  and  when  1  went  out  with  Ford  to  contend  with 
him,  I  thought  I  had  a  chance  to  win,  but  did  not  look  upon 
it  as  a  sure  thing,  as  the  owner  of  Ford  and  all  his  friends 
did.  They  backed  him  for  every  dollar  they  had  in  the 
world,  and  some  of  them  have  not  yet  recovered  from  the 
shock.  When  I  tried  to  tell  them  that  in  Hannis  and  Turner 
they  had  a  pair  that  would  bear  a  great  deal  of  watching 
they  laughed  and  said  I  was  cowardly.  In  this  race  the 
judges  made  what  I  consider  one  of  the  most  outrageous  de- 
cisions that  ever  I  heard.  Ford  beat  Hannis  in  the  first  heat 
half  the  length  of  himself,  never  was  headed  in  the  heat, 
never  swerved  or  made  a  break  of  any  kind,  led  from  start 
to  finish,  and  I  could  have  beaten  him  further  if  there  had 
been  any  necessity,  and  to  the  surj^rise  of  myself  and  every- 
body, on  the  track.  Turner  included,  the  judges  decided  it  a 
dead  heat.  They  explained  to  me,  after  the  race  was  over, 
that  they  expected  it  would  be  a  very  one-sided  affair  and 


LIFE   Vv'ITil   THE  TROTTERS.  201 

wanted  to  give  tlie  public  some  amnsement;  that  they  thought 
I  would  surely  win  and  the  decision  would  only  make  one 
more  heat  in  the  race. 

In  the  second  heat  Ford  led  from  the  start  to  finish,  and 
won  by  a  length.  In  the  next  heat  he  led  all  the  way,  and 
when  they  turned  into  the  stretch  Hannis  was  on  his  wheel. 
Fj  om  there  to  the  distance  stand  they  had  a  battle,  both 
horses  being  driven  under  the  whip.  At  this  j)oint  Hannis 
commenced  to  gain  upon  Ford  in  spite  of  his  efl'orts.  Here 
I  saw  something  that  the  iDublic  did  not.  Hannis  over- 
reached with  his  hind  foot  and  stepped  on  his  quarter  boot, 
which  caused  him  to  break,  and  Ford  beat  him  to  the  stand 
in  2:16|,  which  was  the  best  mile  he  ever  trotted.  I  said  to 
some  of  my  friends  who  were  plunging  on  Ford  after  this 
heat  at  the  rate  of  $100  to  $10  that  they  were  doing  a  very 
dangerous  thing,  as  Ford  had  only  beaten  half  a  length  in 
2:16|,  and  Hannis  had  met  with  an  accident  in  the  heat. 
Another  thing  I  knew  was  that  Turner' s  horse  was  a  tried 
campaigner,  had  been  in  races  where  he  had  been  out-trotted, 
and  his  gameness  had  never  been  questioned.  His  breeding 
and  all  that  went  to  make  him  a  dead  game  horse.  While 
Ford  had  a  rej)utation  with  some  people  of  being  game,  I 
considered  that  he  had  never  been  tried  in  a  manner  to  sat- 
isfy me  of  his  gameness,  and  while  I  do  not  want  to  slander 
a  good  horse,  I  have  always  had  my  doubts  about  Ford  being 
dead  game  where  he  was  in  a  race  with  a  horse  of  equal 
speed  or  a  little  better.  Another  reason  I  had  for  doubting 
his  ability  to  win  was  that  he  had  never  before  been  asked  to 
go  a  mile  better  than  2:20,  and  to  be  called  on  now  to  go  four 
or  five  heats  better  than  2:20  I  thought  a  contract  that  he 
would  be  unable  to  fulfill.  When  we  scored  up  for  the  next 
heat  I  found  that  my  fears  were  only  too  well  founded. 
Ford  lacked  the  dash  and  speed  he  had  j)reviously  shown, 
and  I  went  out  with  my  mind  made  up  to  keep  Turner  on 
the  outside  as  long  as  I  could  and  make  him  go  round  me 
and  leave  the  battle  to  the  last  hundred  yards  unless  Turner 
forced  the  pace.   Turner  seemed  determined  to  do  this  right 


202  LIFE   WITH   THE  TROTTERS. 

from  the  word  ''go,''  and  in  going  down  tlie  back  side  Han- 
nis  out-trotted  Ford,  and  took  the  pole,  and  from  there 
home  he  went  with  something  to  spare.  After  this,  Ford 
gave  up  the  fight,  and  I  think  finished  the  last  mile  in  about 
2:26  or  2:27. 

At  the  time  I  was  very  severely  criticised  about  this  race. 
A  great  many  people  thought  I  did  not  try  to  win,  but  I 
never  took  the  trouble  to  deny  any  of  the  statements.  The 
only  fault  I  had  to  find  with  myself  was  that  I  allowed  peo- 
ple who  were  not  in  a  j)osition  to  be  able  to  form  an  intelli- 
gent opinion  about  training  the  horse  to  tell  me  how  I  Ought 
to  work  him  for  the  race.  But  even  with  all  that  bad  man- 
agement had  Ford  got  justice  out  of  the  judges'  stand  he 
would  have  won  in  straight  heats.  I  think  that  if  I  had 
taken  him  out  about  a  week  before  his  race  and  given  him 
severe  work,  driven  him  a  couple  of  miles  in  about  2:16  or 
2:18,  that  he  would  have  been  able  to  have  dragged  off  the 
race.  He  was  never  so  good  a  horse  afterward  as  he  was 
that  day,  and  I  am  satisfied  that  the  severe  strain  he  under- 
went, being  at  the  time  short  of  work.  Lad  a  good  deal  to 
do  with  his  subsequent  defeats. 

The  most  notable  thing  that  Ford  accomplished  while  in 
my  hands  after  this  was  to  beat  Maud  S.  the  only  heat  she 
ever  lost  to  any  other  horse.  This  was  at  Buffalo,  in  the 
first  heat  of  the  race.  Mand  S.,  Ford,  Driver  and  Hannis 
were  the  contestants.  Maud  S.  being  such  a  favorite,  there 
was  no  betting,  except  for  second  place,  and  on  this  point 
there  was  a  great  deal  of  money  wagered.  Turner  and  his 
friends  bacldng  Hannis,  Junkey  Goldsmith  and  the  cheese- 
makers  from  Orange  County  pinning  their  faith  and  money 
to  that  reliable  race-horse  Driver,  while  my  friends  and  a 
fair  share  of  the  public  took  tickets  on  Ford.  In  driving  this 
race,  each  man  had  to  help  himself.  We  all  knew  thatBair 
would  Avin  with  Maud  S.  in  two  straight  heats.  Neither  of 
the  other  men  I  think  ever  had  an  idea  of  attempting  to 
beat  her  a  heat— I  am  sure  I  did  not.  After  the  word  was 
given,  Maud  S.  led  right  from  the  start  until  we  turned  into 


LIFE  WITH   THE  TKOTTERS.  203 

the  stretcli,  the  other  three  horses  behind  her,  each  driver 
catching  the  others,  and  all  apparently  Avaiting  to  make  a 
drive  at  the  finish.  These  tactics  suited  me  exactly,  as  I 
was  sure  that  Ford  had  the  speed  of  Driver  and  Hannis  and 
was  willing  to  leave  the  race  to  be  decided  in  the  last  fifty 
yards.  As  we  turned  into  the  stretch,  I  noticed  Maud  S.  trip 
with  one  of  her  hind  feet.  I  have  often  had  horses  do  that 
with  me,  and  when  going  at  a  high  rate  of  speed  they  would 
almost  always  make  a  break.  I'did  not  wait  to  see  whether 
she  broke  or  not,  but  as  they  say  on  the  running  turf,  I 
commenced  to  "  sit  down  and  ride"  Ford.  I  think  my  two 
opponents  must  have  seen  what  I  did  at  the  same  time,  for 
Maud  S.  had  not  fairly  left  her  feet  until  I  could  hear  Tur- 
ner and  Goldsmith  driving  their  horses  as  though  it  was  a 
life-and-death  struggle.  I  never  saw  a  more  desperate  finish 
between  three  horses,  or  one  much  closer.  Every  horse  was 
driven  to  the  best  of  his  driver's  ability,  without  regard  to 
the  number  of  times  they  hit  them  on  the  back  with  the 
whip.  They  all  finished  lapx)ed  on  each  other,  Ford  coming 
to  the  wire  first  by  about  a  head.  Driver  second,  and  Hannis 
third;  time,  2:17;  and  I  may  say  that  this  Avas  the  second 
best  heat  of  Ford' s  life,  the  best  heat  I  ever  saw  Driver  trot, 
and  as  good  a  one  as  Hannis  ever  trotted,  Maud  S.  then 
went  on  and  made  short  work  of  the  race,  winning  in  three 
heats,  thereby  giving  Ford  the  second  money  and  to  his 
backers  the  money  that  was  bet  on  the  place. 

This  was  about  the  last  season  that  Ford  ever  made  any 
showing  on  the  turf.  His  owner  got  in  reduced  circum- 
stances, and  this  horse,  which  had  attracted  the  attention  of 
thousands  of  peox)le,  and  for  whom  a  cash  oft'er  of  $12,000 
was  refused,  was  finally  sold  to  a  private  citizen  in  Chicago 
for  $300,  and  is  now  being  jogged  around  on  the  roads  by 
him.  The  last  time  I  saw  Ford  I  was  going  out  on  Wash- 
ington boulevard,  and  noticed  a  rather  matter-of-fact  look- 
ing gentleman  and  lady  jogging  along  behind  an  old  white 
horse  that  neither  looked  nor  acted  as  though  he  had  evei- 
shown  any  disposition  to  trot.  As  he  drew  near  there  seemed 

14 


204  LIFE   WITH   THE   TEOTTEKS. 

to  be  something  familiar  about  him,  as  there  often  "will  about 
an  old  friend  that  you  have  not  seen  for  a  long  time.  As  I 
looked  him  over  carefully  it  came  to  my  mind,  ' '  There  is 
my  old  friend  Ford."  A  feelin'g  came  over  me  about  the 
same  as  if  I  had  seen  some  old  friend  that  had  been  reduced 
from  luxury  to  i)overty.  I  asked  some  i^eople  who  were 
with  me  if  they  thought  the  horse  going  by  would  ever  be 
taken  for  a  race-horse.  They  said  no,  they  did  not  think 
there  was  any  j)ossible  chance  of  that,  and  when  I  told  them 
he  was  the  only  horse  in  the  world  that  had  ever  beaten 
Maud  S.  a  heat,  they  were  greatly  surprised.  Indisposition, 
Ford  was  a  very  mUd  and  pleasant  horse;  he  was  a  good 
feeder  and  not  a  hard  horse  to  train.  He  wore  quarter  boots 
and  knee  boots,  shoes  and  scalpers  behind.  I  drove  him 
with  an  open  bridle,  and  overhead  check,  long  martingales, 
and  a  Dexter  snaffle  bit.  He  was  a  horse  that  when  it  came 
to  the  finish  needed  considerable  driving,  or  hustling  along, 
as  the  boys  call  it,  but  in  other  respects  there  was  nothing 
remarkable  about  him. 

A  horse  of  as  marked  peculiarities  as  I  ever  saw  was 
Adelaide,  once  a  member  of  my  stable,  and  she  was  a  very 
handsome  small  bay  mare,  less  than  fifteen  hands  high,  and 
when  in  condition  did  not  weigh  over  800  pounds.  But 
every  ounce  of  her  was  first-class  race-horse  material,  as 
she  proved  over  and  over  again  in  her  battles  with  some  of 
the  biggest  and  best  trotters  that  ever  took  the  Avord  on  a 
race  track — and  when  I  say  this,  I  mean  that  Adelaide  was 
a  great  one  in  her  day.  Trotters  should  always  be  gauged  as 
to  their  merits  by  the  position  they  attained  at  the  time 
they  were  in  their  best  form,  and  when  Adelaide  had  the 
most  speed  of  her  life  it  was  at  a  day  when  a  2:15  horse  was 
practically  unknown,  and  not  as  now  when  every  year  a 
new  one  of  that  speed  comes  out.  Adelaide  was  a  daughter 
of  Phil  Sheridan,  out  of  a  mare  that  was  brought  to  Water- 
town  by  an  English  ofiicer,  and  owned  by  a  farmer,  and 
commenced  her  career  by  drawing  wood  to  town  by  the  side 
of  her  dam.      She  finally  fell  into  the  hands  of  a  local 


LIFE   WITH  THE   TROTTERS.  205 

driver  named  Irving  Harris.  He  drove  lier  a  mile  in  about 
2:30.  Then  Dan  De  Noyelles,  who  used  to  drive  horses  with 
Dan  and  Benny  Mace  when  they  were  boys,  having  owned  at 
that  time  the  trotter  Frank  Vernon,  afterward  known  as 
Panic,  went  uj)  to  Watertown  and  gave  a  long  price  for  the 
little  mare.  Someone  suggested  that  Dan  bought  Adelaide 
for  a  book-mark,  saying  she  certainly  was  not  big  enough 
for  anything  else.  But  the  little  mare's  career  proved  that 
Dan  knew  what  he  was  about,  as  she  was  a  mark 
for  a  good  many  horses  to  shoot  at  that  were  not  able  to 
hit  her.  She  passed  through  the  hands  of  Mose  Whipple 
into  Jack  Phillips'  stable  and  then  came  to  me. 

The  first  time  I  worked  her  and  brought  her  to  the 
stables  she  did  not  sweat  a  particle.  This  being  such  an 
unnatural  thing  I  was  rather  alarmed,  but  when  I  spoke  to 
the  boy  about  it  he  said  it  was  nothing  unsual — that  she 
never  would  sweat.  I  could  hardly  believe  that  statement, 
as  in  my  career  u^^  to  that  time,  I  had  never  seen  a  horse  in 
health  that  would  not  sweat  after  violent  exendse.  I  inter- 
viewed De  Noyelles  about  it,  and  he  said  that  the  most 
he  ever  saw  her  sweat  was  to  moisten  under  the  harness  just 
a  little.  I  studied  the  mare  carefully,  but  was  never  able 
to  account  for  this  peculiarity.  In  training  Adelaide,  I 
took  extra  pains  to  handle  and  care  for  her  in  a  manner  that 
would  cause  her  to  ^Derspire  or  sweat  freely,  but  nothing  I 
ever  did  in  the  way  of  medicine  or  attention  seemed  to  have 
the  slightest  effect  on  her.  She  was  a  good  feeder,  carried 
but  very  little  flesh,  and  even  in  winter  when  allowed  to  eat 
all  she  wanted  to,  would  not  increase  her  weight  more  than 
fifty  pounds.  In  the  two  years  I  had  her  she  trotted  some 
great  races.  The  most  notable  one,  i^erhaps,  was  where  she 
defeated  a  field  of  a  dozen  that  were  considered  first-class 
horses  at  that  time.  This  race  took  i)lace  over  the  Cleve- 
land track  in  1878.  The  two  horses  between  whom  the  race 
was  supposed  to  lie  were  Prospero  and  Midnight,  a  couple 
of  black  geldings  that  had  shown  the  ability  to  trot  in  2:20, 
whereas  Adelaide  was  looked  upon  by  horsemen  and  the 


206  LIFE  WITH   THE  TEOTTEES, 

public  as  equal  to  a  mile  in  about  2:23  wlien  at  her  best. 
In  the  betting  the  night  before  the  race  Adelaide  was 
entirely  overlooked  by  the  public— so  much  so  that  De 
Noyelles,  her  owner,  gave  Dempsey  an  order  to  put  $250  on 
her.  Dempsey  told  me  we  could  win  all  the  money  in  the 
pool-box  with  $100  on  Adelaide — provided  of  course  that 
she  was  victorious.  Demi)sey  put  $163  on  her  for  De  Noyelles 
at  the  odds,  which  netted  after  the  race  was  over  something 
in  the  neighborhood  of  $7,000. 

When  Dan  came  out  the  next  morning  and  showed  me 
the  tickets,  I  gave  him  what  the  boys  call  the  laugh.  He 
said  that  vras  all  right,  but  that  if  I  would  drive  the  race  as 
he  told  me  and  he  did  not  win  he  would  be  perfectly  satis- 
fied. I  told  him  he  could  have  absolute  command,  and  to 
be  around  with  his  orders  when  the  bell  rang.  When  the 
time  came  DeNoyelles  just  asked  me  to  go  easy  the  first 
heat,  simply  saving  my  distance,  which  I  did,  and  was  far 
behind  Prospero,  who  rushed  away  the  lead,  was  never 
headed,  and  won  the  heat  in  about  2:22.  De  Noyelles  told 
me  to  lay  uj)  the  mare  again  in  the  second  heat  regardless 
of  what  might  happen.  I  did  this,  and  Midnight,  a  horse 
that  belonged  to  Mr.  C.  M.  Reed,  of  Erie,  Pa.,  and  one  that 
was  looked  ui)on  by  the  talent  as  a  sure  winner  went  out  to 
the  front  at  the  word  and  won  with  seeming  ease,  the  time 
again  being  about  2:22.  When  we  were  ready  for  the  next 
heat  De  Noyelles  said  :  "  Lay  up  again,"  and  I  did.  Mid- 
night again  winning.  When  they  called  for  the  fourth 
heat,  De  JS'oyelles  said:  ' '  Have  your  war-paint  on,  and  Avhen 
the  judges  say  go,  let  us  see  how  fast  you  can  get  away  from 
the  wire. ' '  Adelaide  was  a  good  scorer,  a  first-class  breaker, 
and  could  be  relied  ui)on  to  do  her  very  best  when  asked. 
At  this  time  I  had  heard  that  Midnight  had  a  soft  spot  in  him, 
and  on  the  strength  of  this  I  took  him  well  down  the  stretch, 
scored  up  a  few  times,  and  when  they  said  "go"  he  and 
Adelaide  went  off  at  a  great  clip.  Midnight  broke  at 
the  first  turn,  which  gave  Adelaide  the  lead  and  she  was 
never  headed,  winning  the  heat  with  something  to  spare.  In 


LIFE   WITH    THE   TKOTTERS.  207 

tlie  next  heat,  Adelaide  was  too  much  for  the  others,  none  of 
them  getting  to  her.  This  being  the  fifth  heat  all  the  horses 
that  had  not  won  a  heat  Avere  sent  to  the  stable,  which  left 
the  Tace  to  be  finished  between  Adelaide,  Prospero  and 
Midnight.  Prospero  and  Midnight  had  given  up  the  battle, 
for  that  diiy  at  least,  and  it  looked  then  as  though  DeNoy- 
elles  had  the  boys  sure.  Midnight' s  party  held  a  council 
of  war,  as  a  last  resort  put  Turner  up  to  drive  the  black  fel- 
low, but  it  was  of  no  use,  as  they  never  headed  her,  she  win- 
ning the  heat  and  race  in  2:30,  and  could  have  shut  out  both 
horses. 

Adelaide  was  a  very  mild,  pleasant  mare,  both  in  the 
stable  and  on  the  track.  Her  legs  and  feet  were  simply 
perfection.  She  wore  about  a  ten-once  shoe  in  front,  and 
no  boots  with  the  exception  of  a  light  i^air  behind.  I  drove 
her  with  an  open  bridle,  an  overcheck,  no  martingales,  and 
she  was  as  easy  a  mare  to  drive  as  I  ever  had.  After  her 
turf  career  was  finished,  De  Noyelles  bred  Adelaide  to 
JN'utwood,  2:18|,  and  her  filly  by  him  has  lieen  sent  to  Cali- 
fornia to  be  mated  with  Sable  Wilkes,  2:18.  The  result  of 
this  union,  according  to  the  records  in  his  family,  ought  to 
be  a  x^rince  of  trotters,  as  his  dam  has  a  record  of  2:1 9|,  her 
sire  one  of  2:2G^.  The  sire  of  the  filly  has  a  mark  of  2:18|, 
and  the  sire  of  Sable  Wilkes  one  of  2: 15 J,  while  his  sire, 
George  Wilkes,  placed  2:22  many  years  ago. 

On  one  of  my  trix:)S  to  California,  I  went  on  a  social  visit 
to  a  place  called  Marysville.  While  sitting  in  the  hotel  one 
day  a  rather  queer-cut  looking  little  man  came  in  and  in- 
troduced himself  to  me.  He  said  his  name  was  James  B. 
McDonald,  by  trade  he  was  a  bricklayer,  a  statement  that  I 
judged  was  true  from  the  brick  and  mortar  dust  that  had 
gathered  on  his  clothing.  I  supiDOsed  that  he  might  want 
to  sell  me  a  brick  house,  but  was  surprised  that  he  came  to 
interview  me  on  the  horse  question.  McDonald  told  me 
that  he  owned  a  bay  stallion  that  he  had  bought  in  Ken- 
tucky. He  said  that  Gen.  John  E.  Turner  had  bought  the 
horse  at  an  auction  sale  in  Kentucky,  and  the  next  day  he 


208  LIFE   VflTH   THE  TROTTERS. 

gave  Turner  $25  profit  on  the  colt  and  took  him  with  some 
liorses  to  California.  He  added  that  he  did  not  pretend  to 
know  much  about  trotters,  but  had  been  some  with  race- 
horses when  a  boy,  and  all  the  training  this  horse  had 
received  was  done  by  himself.  He  wanted  to  know  if  I 
would  oblige  him  by  going  to  the  track  some  day  driving 
his  horse,  and  telling  him  what  I  thought  of  the  animal. 
To  iDlease  Mr.  McDonald  I  said  I  would,  and  on  the  follow- 
ing day  we  met  at  the  track  by  agreement,  and  he  had  his 
horse  there.  When  I  saw  the  animal  I  was  not  particularly 
impressed  with  him  as  he  was  a  low-headed  horse,  with 
rather  a  slouchy  way  of  moving.  McDonald  asked  me  to 
drive  him  from  the  half-mile  pole  to  the  judges'  stand,  I  did 
so,  and  when  I  set  him  going  he  moved  out  at  a  nice  clean  ox)en 
gait,  and  went  the  half  in  1:11.  Mr.  McDonald  seemed 
rather  excited  at  this,  and  when  I  told  him  that  I  thought 
I  could  have  driven  the  half  from  one  to  two  seconds  better, 
I  think  it  pleased  him  more  than  would,  just  then,  a  con- 
tract to  build  a  brick  block.  On  the  strength  of  this  per- 
formance, I  arranged  to  take  the  horse  back  with  me  to 
San  Francisco  and  train  him.  He  showed  me  a  trial  of 
2:22|^,  and  Mr.  McDonald  and  myself  brought  him  East,  and 
trotted  him  a  number  of  races  with  more  than  ordinary  sue- . 
cess.  He  had  a  record  of  about  2:30  at  this  time,  and  was 
called  Brigadier. 

We  trotted  "Brig"  through  the  Michigan  circuit,  where 
he  won  all  his  races.  People  say  there  is  nothing  in  luck. 
I  hardly  think  there  is  myself,  but  this  was  one  of  the  luck- 
iest horses  I  ever  had.  If  ever  it  came  to  a  close  decision 
out  of  the  judges'  stand.  Brigadier  always  seemed  to  get  the 
best  of  it.  I  can  give  a  little  incident  which  illustrates  this, 
and  also  shows  the  uncertainty  of  horse-racing.  We  had 
Brigadier  in  a  race  at  Toledo,  Ohio,  over  a  half-mile  track. 
When  we  got  there  we  found  a  large  field  of  horses  and  a 
very  rough  track.  Mr.  McDonald  liked  to  back  his  horse 
well  whenever  he  had  a  chance  to  win,  and  as  we  thought 
we  could  handle  the  field  easily,  he  put  on  about  all  the 


LIFE   WITH   THE   TEOTTERS.  209 

money  that  lie  could  get  judiciously,  and  I  went  out  to  trot 
and  win  in  three  straight  heats.  He  drew  the  pole,  but  when 
the  word  was  given  in  the  first  heat  the  horse  next  to  him 
broke  and  swerved,  and  I  took  Brigadier  back  to  avoid  a 
collision.  Just  then  he  caught  a  hind  foot  in  one  of  his 
quarter  boots,  and  came  near  throwing  himself  down.  By 
the  time  I  got  him  stopped  the  other  horse  was  going  down 
the  back  side  of  the  track  and  Brigadier  was  more  than  a 
distance  out.  I  took  in  the  situation  at  a  glance,  made  up 
my  mind  I  had  no  chance  to  save  my  distance,  and  merely 
jogged  him  round  the  track.  When  I  arrived  at  the  judges' 
stand,  I  found  there  rather  an  excited  party,  and  among 
the  lot  Avas  a  very  pompous  individual  who  had  a  pool- 
ticket  on  Brigadier  the  amount  of  which  did  not  rex)resent 
perhaps  one-half  of  one  per  cent,  of  the  sum  that  Briga- 
dier's  owner  had  on  him.  This  man  was  telling  the  judges 
in  language  more  forcible  than  elegant  that  he  did  not  jivo- 
130se  to  be  robbed  by  Splan  or  anyone  else.  He  wanted  a 
show  for  his  money,  or  there  would  be  a  fight.  He  knew  I 
had  thrown  the  heat  away  for  a  i3urpose  and  had  my  horse 
distanced  intentionally.  Of  course  Mr.  McDonald  and  my- 
self expected  Brigadier  to  be  distanced,  and  had  already 
commenced  to  figure  up  our  losses.  The  judges  held  a  con- 
sultation and  then  called  me  into  the  stand,  and  I  will  never 
forget  the  expression  on  their  faces,  as  they  looked  at  me 
as  much  as  to  say:  "  You  are  i3erhai3S  a  pretty  cute  driver, 
but  you  can't  come  up  in  this  country  and  swindle  our 
IDatrons,"  and  they  opened  their  conversation  by  asking  me 
if  my  horse  was  in  the  habit  of  making  that  kind  of  breaks. 
I  told  them  no — it  was  the  first  time  he  ever  broke  with  me 
in  a  race.  In  a  very  dignified  mannisr,  they  informed  me 
that  they  were  not  satisfied  with  the  manner  in  which  I  had 
driven  the  heat;  that  they  were  not  going  to  take  me  out,  as 
they  believed  I  was  as  good  a  driver  as  there  was  on  the 
track,  but  would  insist  on  my  starting  my  horse  again,  and 
that  if  he  did  not  win  they  would  perhaps  relieve  me  from 
driving  any  more  that  season,  meaning  that  I  would  be  sus- 


210  LIFE   WITH   THE  TROTTERS. 

pendecl  if  I  did  not  win.  Tliey  then  announced  their  decis- 
ion to  the  crowd  and  told  what  course  they  had  taken  in 
regard  to  Brigadier. 

Of  course  Mr.  McDonald  and  myself  felt  as  if  our  lives 
had  been  si^ared.  When  they  gave  the  word  in  the  next 
heat  Brigadier  went  out  to  the  front,  and  was  never  headed. 
The  people  who  had  bet  their  money  against  him  were  dis- 
posed to  kick  up  a  row,  but  the  judges  awarded  him  the 
heat  and  race,  and  we  not  only  got  the  purses  but  the  pool- 
box  as  well.  Now  here  is  a  case  where  I  think  the  judges 
erred.  This  horse  was  distanced  fairly,  and  they  had  no 
right  to  allow  him  to  start  again  under  any  rule  in  the  book, 
unless  they  thought  I  had  willfully  had  him  distanced. 
Brigadier  Avas  a  horse  with  a  wonderful  turn  of  speed,  a 
good  actor,  feeder  and  campaigner,  and  with  horses  that 
were  no  faster  than  himself  he  was  pretty  hard  to  beat. 
Mr.  McDonald  afterward  took  Brigadier  back  to  Ca,lif ornia 
where  he  imx)roved  his  record  to  2:21  J,  and  is  now  used  in 
the  stud.  He  was  by  Hai3j)y  Medium,  and  his  dam  was  a 
mare  by  Jack  Pierce.  The  befet  race  Brigadier  ever  went 
to  my  knowledge  was  when  he  beat  Chestnut  Hill  at  Buffalo 
in  a  race  of  five  heats.  The  public  thought  that  if  Briga- 
dier did  not  win  in  three  straight  heats  he  would  not  win 
at  all.  In  this  race  we  let  the  other  peo|)le  do  the  fighting 
and  laid  Brigadier  up  the  first  two  heats,  and  when  it  came 
to  the  finish  in  the  next  mile  he  outstaid  Chestnut  Hill, 
beat  him  the  heat,  and  finally  won  the  race. 

Among  my  old-time  horses  was  the  chestnut  gelding 
Planter,  who  came  into  my  hands  with  a  record  of  2:29^, 
and  was  owned  by  a  gentleman  of  the  name  of  Andrews, — 
a  contractor  from  New  Jersey.  Mr.  Andrews  was  not  very 
much  posted  about  trotters,  but  he  had  unlimited  confi- 
dence in  his  own  horse  and  a  disposition  to  back  him  every 
time  he  started  regardless  of  the  class  he  was  in  or  what  I 
might  think  about  the  matter,  and  as  it  often  occurs  in  these 
cases  he  made  some  winnings  that  a  more  careful  and 
prudent  man  would  not  have  made,  as  Planter  dragged  off 


LIFE  WITH  THE  TROTTERS.  211 

one  or  two  races  where  a  victory  by  liim  seemed  next  to 
impossible.  The  first  race  I  won  with  Planter  was  at  Utica 
against  Marion,  a  horse  driven  by  D.  P.  Bissell,  one  of  the 
old  school  of  trainers,  a  first-class  blaclvsmith  by  trade,  wlio 
now  lives  and  runs  a  shop  at  Indianapolis,  Ind.  Bissell  first 
made  his  rex)utation  away  back  when  I  was  a  boy  by  driv- 
ing sucli  well-known  horses  as  John  A.  Logan  and  Billy 
Barr,  In  this  race  Marion  was  a  long  favorite,  Planter 
selling  for  nothing — his  owner  backing  him  and  I  telling 
him  I  was  sure  he  was  wasting  his  money.  They  fought 
out  a  desperate  race  of  six  heats  and  in  it  Marion  made  the 
best  record  of  his  life,  as  also  did  Planter.  Dan  Mace  was 
there  and  bought  a  few  cheap  tickets  on  Planter,  more,  I 
think,  because  I  was  driving  him  than  because  he  thought 
the  horse  would  win,  and  after  each  heat  came  down,  took 
off  his  coat,  and  with  his  usual  enthusiasm  helped  the  boys 
to  cool  out  the  horse.  Planter  was  rather  a  hard  horse  to 
drive,  having  a  disposition  in  the  first  half  of  a  mile  to  run 
a  good  deal,  and  the  last  half  he  wanted  a  good  deal  of 
carrying. 

The  only  other  race  of  any  note  Planter  trotted  was  one 
over  the  Springfield,  Mass.,  track  the  same  season.  Here  he 
had  a  large  field  of  horses  to  contend  with,  sold  for  nothing 
in  the  pools  again,  his  owner  backed  him,  and  the  public 
refused  to  have  their  money  on  him  at  any  price.  The  race 
proved  a  disastrous  one  for  the  talent,  as  Trio,  the  favorite^ 
was  distanced  in  the  first  heat,  and  a  bay  gelding  called 
Bay,  that  belonged  to  a  band  of  j^eople  that  I  have  never 
seen  on  the  turf  before  or  since,  won  it.  There  was  a  pecul- 
iarity about  this  trotter  that  made  an  impression  on  my 
mind  that  has  never  been  effaced.  On  the  farm  where  he 
was  bred  was  an  old  gray  horse  that  ran  in  the  field  with 
Bay  while  he  was  colt.  As  Bay  grew  up  to  a  horse's  form, 
he  and  the  old  gray  formed  a  sti'ong  attachment  for  each 
other,  and  it  was  with  difficulty  tiiat  they  could  be  separated. 
The  colt  being  trotting-bred,  his  owner  concluded  to  have 
him  trained,  but  found  when  he  sent  him  to  a  trainer's  that 


212  LIFE  WITH  THE  TROTTERS. 

he  was  apparently  wild  from  the  loss  of  his  old  gray  friend, 
he  refused  to  eat,  thrashed  around  in  his  stall,  and  made 
things  uncomfortable  generally. 

They  took  him  back  to  the  owner,  and  when  he  was  again 
turned  in  with  the  gray  horse  he  seemed  perfectly  satisfied 
and  quiet.  They  thereupon  concluded  to  return  him  to  the 
trainer,  and  send  his  old  gray  chum  with  him  for  company, 
and  ever  afterward  the  two  were  not  separated.  When  Bay 
showed  speed  enough  to  waiTant  his  being  entered  through 
the  circuit  the  old  gray  gelding  had  to  be  shipped  in  the 
same  car.  When  they  went  to  the  race  track  with  Bay  the 
gray  had  to  be  taken  along  and  kept  at  the  cooling-out 
ground  where  Bay  could  see  him  while  they  were  cooling 
him  out  between  heats.  The  nearest  to  this  attachment  that 
I  ever  saw  shown  in  a  horse,  was  the  love  of  Jim  the  dog, 
and  Earns.  People  often  say  that  horses  cannot  think — 
well,  maybe  they  can't,  but  just  such  things  as  the  incident 
related  make  me  positive  that  horses  are  as  near  human  as 
anything  can  be  without  the  ability  to  think.  The  talent 
thinldng  that  Bay  was  not  being  driven  by  an  expert,  in- 
duced Mr.  Doble  to  get  up  behind  him.  It  came  to  a  battle 
between  myself  and  Planter  on  one  side,  and  Budd  with  Bay 
on  the  other,  with  the  old  gray  horse  thrown  in  for  company. 
I  learned  something  about  Budd  that  day  that  I  have  not 
forgotten.  I  had  heard  people  say  that  Budd  drove  well  if 
he  had  the  best  horse  but  they  didn't  believe  that  in  a 
tight  race  he  would  be  dead  game.  In  this  fight  between 
Planter  and  Bay  it  came  down  to  the  deciding  heat,  and  as 
we  were  going  down  the  back  side  of  t]ie  track,  head  and 
head,  Budd's  horse  broke.  In  every  other  heat  where  he  had 
broken  I  had  beaten  Bay  easily,  and  of  course  when  he 
made  this  break  I  thought  the  heat  was  over,  but  such  was 
not  the  case.  Budd  never  let  go  his  hold  and  caught  his 
horse  on  a  trot  without  even  having  lost  his  position.  I 
immediately  climbed  out  on  Planter  s  back  and  everything 
I  had  ever  heard  about  hustling  a  horse  I  practiced  on  him 
right  there.     They  came  to  the  three-quarter  pole  in  Just 


LIFE  WITH  THE  TROTTERS.  213 

those  positions  and  as  they  rounded,  into  the  stretch  both 
horses  showed  a  disposition  to  give  it  up.  I  persevered  with 
mine  and  Doble  did  likewise  with  his.  At  the  distance 
stand  they  were  both  staggering  like  a  couple  of  drunken 
men.  There  was  a  big  darky  that  rubbed  Planter  who 
always  went  around  bareheaded.  About  this  time  he  rushed 
out  on  the  track  like  a  wild  man  and  shouted  out  to  me, 
loud  enough  to  be  heard  all  over  the  grounds:  "Reef 
him,  boss!  reef  him!"  Whether  it  was  the  darky's  en- 
couragement or  not,  I  never  could  tell,  but  I  hit  old  Planter 
again  and  he  fell  under  the  wire  first  by  about  a  head. 
Whenever  anybody  tells  me  now  that  Budd  Doble  cannot 
drive  a  tight  race  I  do  not  have  to  take  out  my  book  to 
figure  on  it,  I  merely  think  of  the  heat  when  he  drove  Bay 
against  Planter,  and  while  I  might  not  try  to  prove  to  the 
other  man  that  he  is  wrong  in  his  argument,  it  is  enough  for 
me  to  remember  that  Budd  will  do  to  drive  for  the  money, 
no  matter  how  tight  the  fit. 

In  the  spotted  gelding  Prince,  I  had  another  horse  which 
proved  the  uncertainties  of  race-horses.  This  animal  was 
of  humble  birth  and  beset  with  misfortunes  besides.  A 
circus  company  of  rather  moderate  renown  was  exhibiting 
through  the  State  of  Georgia.  Among  their  teams  was  a 
blocky  bay  mare  that  proved  to  be  in  foal  and  gave  birth  to 
a  spotted  colt  that  was  totally  blind.  Thinking  that  the 
colt  would  be  nothing  but  a  nuisance,  the  circus  people 
gave  him  away  to  an  old  lady  and  gentleman,  who  in  the 
kindness  of  their  hearts  took  him  home  and  raised  him  on 
a  bottle.  He  grew  up  one  of  the  most  knowing  horses  that 
I  ever  saw.  The  old  man  tells  me  that  he  could  be  taught 
anything  that  any  horse  ever  learned.  When  he  was  about 
five  or  six  years  old  he  was  sold  and  came  into  the  hands  of 
Mr.  G.  J.  Fuller,  a  man  who  at  that  time  was  the  star 
trainer  of  the  Southern  country,  and  originally  went  there 
from  the  State  of  Ohio,  where  his  family  were  born,  were 
first-class  farmers,  and  always  good  horsemen.  Since  that 
time  Fuller  has  made  a  reputation  as  one  of  the  most  sue- 


214  LIFE  WITH   THE  TKOTTEES. 

cessful  colt  and  horse  trainers  in  this  country.  Among 
some  of  the  most  noted  trotters  he  has  trained  and  devel- 
oped are  Frank  Reeves,  Elvira,  with  whom  he  beat  the  f  onr- 
year-old  record  when  she  was  of  that  age,  trotting  a  mile  in 
2:18^,  Patron,  with  whom  he  beat  the  three-year-colt  record, 
and  afterward  gave  a  record  of  2: 14 J  at  five  years  old, 
beating  at  that  time  the  star  trotting  horse  of  the  year  in 
Harry  Wilkes.  As  a  colt  handler,  Fuller  ranks  as  among 
the  best  in  the  country.  While  he  was  with  the  Glenview 
farm  he  brought  out  a  number  of  good  ones,  among  them 
Nutbreaker,  a  son  of  Nutwood  that  was  one  of  the  first 
horses  to  beat  2:30  when  two  years  old.  Of  late  years,  Mr. 
Fuller  has  been  the  trainer  and  driver  for  the  Forrest  City 
farm  of  Mr.  C.  F.  Emory,  and  in  that  position  he  has 
attained  marked  success. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

How  Maud  S.  trotted  in  3:08f,  as  seen  by  the  man  who  drove  a  runner 
alongside  of  the  mare — What  Splan  knows  of  Guy,  the  sensational  trotter 
of  1888 — Driving  him  to  a  road-cart  in  2:17i,  the  horse  being  barefoot — The 
story  of  how  Colonel  West  discovered  Kentucky  Prince,  the  sire  of  Guy- 
Trotters  are  born,  not  made — Jay-Eye-See's  good  races  down  the  circuit 
in  1887,  beating  Arab,  the  crack  trotter  of  the  year — Clingstone's  race 
against  the  watch  in  2:14 — His  great  victory  over  Harry  Wilkes  at  Detroit — 
How  he  was  trained  for  this  race  and  driven  in  it. 

To  return  to  the  history  of  Prince.  In  Mr,  Fuller's 
hands  he  obtained  a  record  of  about  2:26.  I  bought  him 
for  a  friend  of  mine,  drove  him  on  the  road  through  the 
winter,  and  in  the  summer  of  1876  took  him  up  and  trotted 
him  a  few  races.  The  best  race  he  ever  went,  for  me  was 
one  in  which  he  beat  Slow  Go  at  Pliiladelx)hia.  In  that 
race  I  had  for  a  side-partner  Gus  Glidden,  and  as  Phila- 
delphians  were  not  very  well  acquainted  with  Gus  and  my- 
self they  rated  us  just  a  little  too  cheap.  Slow  Go  was  in 
Turner  s  stable,  and  as  he  had  shown  some  fast  trials  in  his 
work  his  party  backed  him  as  thougli  tlie  money  was  won. 
When  the  day  of  t!ie  race  came  Turner  was  ill  and  confined 
to  his  bed,  and  he  intrusted  Slow  Go  and  the  money  of  the 
Philadelphians  to  his  lieutenant,  James  Pettit.  This  was 
Glidden' s  first  apxiearance  on  the  Philadelphia  turf,  and 
when  he  drove  on  the  track  attired  in  his  Indiana  costume 
the  boys  were  a  little  disposed  to  guy  him,  and  when  I 
asked  the  pool-man  whether  he  hadn't  better  get  a  ticlvet 
on  Prince,  he  said  No,  he  did  not  want  anJ^  Prince's 
owner  left  a  fair-sized  check  in  Mr.  Barker's  pool -box  to  be 
j)ut  on  his  horse;  told  me  if  I  won  the  race  I  could  help 
myself  to  whatever  part  I  thought  myself  entitled  to,  and 

(315)' 


216  LIFE   WITH   THE  TROTTERS. 

lie  would  take  the  balance.  When  it  came  night  we  had 
the  money.  Slow  Go  won  two  heats,  but  as  he  was  a  trille 
out  of  sorts  Prince  hung  on  a  little  the  longest  and  won  the 
race.  Pettit  insists  to  this  day  that  Glidden  and  I  rather 
double-banked  liim,  but  Gus  alloAved  that  as  long  as  we  got 
the  money  we  could  afford  to  let  Pettit  have  his  say  about 
the  race. 

Prince  was  a  dead  game  horse;  he  could  have  gone  two 
miles  well,  and  although  he  had  the  misfortune  to  be  blind 
he  was  one  of  the  best  race-horses  of  his  speed  I  ever  drove. 
He  was  a  good  scorer,  very  steady,  and  a  hrst-class  finisher. 
His  infirmity  appeared  to  make  all  his  other  senses  more 
acute.  He  seemed  to  know  that  he  was  blind,  realized  the 
fact,  and  left  everything  entirely  to  the  driver,  and  I  noticed 
that  in  shipping  him  about  in  the  cars  all  the  other  horses 
took  a  great  deal  of  interest  in  this  blind  one,  ahd  as  I 
watched  them  I  thought  that  perhaps  they  realized  the  fact 
of  his  being  sightless.  If  you  left  Prince  alone  in  the  field 
he  would  not  stir  until  you  went  for  him,  being  apparently 
afraid  to  take  a  step  on  his  own  responsibility.  If  after 
trotting  a  severe  heat,  you  took  the  harness  off  him  he 
would  lie  down  and  roll  exactly  like  a  mule  after  a  hard 
day's  work,  get  up  and  shake  himself,  and  seem  ready  to 
go  at  it  again.  In  connection  with  Prince,  it  may  be  said 
that  the  boy  that  took  care  of  him  was  a  character.  He 
was  so  plain  and  homely  in  appearance  that  the  other  boys 
called  him  ''Danger,"  which  nickname  he  carried  to  his 
grave.  Prince  became  as  fond  of  "Danger"  as  a  dog 
would  of  its  master.  I  think  they  were  the  best  assorted 
pair,  horse  and  man,  that  ever  I  saw. 

Inasmuch  as  I  drove  the  runner  with  Maud  S.  when  she 
made  her  greatest  effort,  and  succeeded  in  beating  not  only 
the  whole  world  but  her  own  record,  I  feel  that  it  will  not 
be  out  of  place  for  me  to  give  what  I  know  will  interest  the 
readers— a  short  sketch  of  this  mare  as  I  have  seen  her  from 
my  standpoint.  The  public  is  already  well  informed  about 
the  history  of  Maud  S.,  and  I  will  confine  myself  strictly  to 


LIFE   WITH  THE  TEOTTEES.  217 

the  inside  view  of  her  great  mile  in  2:08|.  This  trial  took 
place  over  the  Cleveland  track.  She  Avas  advertised  to  give  an 
exhibition  and  I  was  asked  to  drive  tlie  runner  to  accom- 
pany her,  sometliing  that  I  was  pleased  to  do  as  I  always 
greatly  admired  this  mare,  and  was  glad  to  see  a  horse 
whose  owner  was  brave  enough  to  buy  the  best  trottter  in  the 
world  succeed.  After  Mr.  Bair  had  his  mare  i^roperly 
warmed  up,  as  he  considered,  we  went  out  and  tried  to  do 
the  trick.  I  have  heard  a  great  many  x>eople  remark  that 
nobody  is  interested  in  seeing  a  horse  trot  to  beat  the  watch. 
In  some  cases  I  think  they  are  right;  for  instance,  if  some 
cross-roads  man  conies  out  with  a  cheaj)  horse  and  wants  to 
try  to  make  him  beat  2:35  and  he  can  not  go  better  than 
2:34f,  people  take  no  interest  in  it,  but  in  my  turf  career  I 
have  always  noticed  that  when  some  horse  that  the  public 
thinks  has  a  reasonable  chance  to  do  something  that  no 
other  horse  has  ever  done,  whether  it  is  to  go  against 
another  horse  or  against  the  watch,  comes  on  the  track, 
they  take  interest  enough  in  the  loerformance  to  give  their 
time  and  money  for  the  privilege  of  seeing  the  animal  try. 
I  have  seen  Dexter,  Goldsmith  Maid,  Rams,  St.  Julien, 
Jay-Eye-See,  and  Maud  S.  successfully  lower  the  trotting 
record,  and  when  they  would  do  it  the  large  crowds  that  saw 
them  would  cheer  in  a  manner  to  convince  the  most  skeptical 
that  they  were  deeply  interested  in  the  matter. 

I  had  for  a  runner  the  day  Maud  S.  trotted  at  Cleveland, 
a  handsome  brown  horse  called  Dart,  that  belonged  to  Mr. 
W.  J.  Gordon.  After  we  scored  down  two  or  three  times 
the  judges  gave  the  word,  and  after  going  about  seventy-five 
yards  the  mare  broke.  Bair  stopped  and  returned,  and  on 
getting  the  word  the  next  time  she  went  away  steadily  and 
fast,  the  pace  seeming  to  me  a  little  too  speedy.  Bair  said 
nothing  to  her  as  she  moved  by  the  quarter  pole  at  a  rate  of 
speed  that  rather  frightened  me,  as  I  thought  no  liorse 
could  live  at  that  pace.  She  went  on  down  to  the  half- 
mile  pole  at  the  same  terrific  gait.  I  staid  well  back  with 
the  runner,  as  I  thought  the  mare  was  going  fully  as  fast  as 


218  LIFE   WITH   THE  TROTTERS. 

she  ought  to.  At  the  half  I  looked  at  my  watch  and  told 
Bail'  that  we  were  certainly  going  fast  enough,  and  to  not 
increase  the  speed.  As  we  moved  around  the  upx3er  turn  it 
seemed  to  me  that  without  any  urging  on  the  part  of  her 
driver  the  mare  put  on  increased  sjoeed.  Turning  into  the 
stretch  it  seemed  to  me  that  for  a  stride  or  two  she  faltered, 
and  I  said  to  Bair,  "Better  take  her  back  a  little."  He  did 
so,  and  at  the  seven-eighths-mile  pole  he  straightened  her 
out,  drew  his  whip,  and  touched  her  very  lightly.  At  this 
point  I  brought  the  runner  up  lit- ad  and  head  witli  Maud 
and  from  there  to  the  judges'  stand  the  mare  showed  all  the 
determination  and  bravery  that  you  could  imagine  any  ani- 
mal or  man  capable  of  showing.  If  a  man  had  been  in  her 
position  and  making  a  struggle  for  his  life  he  could  not  have 
put  forth  a  more  superhuman  effort  than  that  mare  did, 
and  liow  anyone  can  see  a  horse  struggle  as  trifly  and 
bravely  as  she  did  and  not  admire  him  is  more  than  I  can 
tell.  It  took  the  audience  but  a  very  few  seconds  to  learn 
that  Maud  S,  had  beaten  the  record.  They  did  not  wait  for 
the  judges  to  announce  the  fact  from  the  stand  before  they 
set  up  such  a  cheer  as  it  seems  to  me  Maud  S.  and  Bair 
Avill  never  foiget.  After  they  had  given  vent  to  their 
first  enthusiasm  Mr.  Wm.  S.  Edwards,  the  president  of  the 
association,  and  the  x^residing  judge  in  the  stand,  was  en- 
abled to  call  1  hem  to  order  long  enough  to  announce  that 
Maud  S,  had  beaten  her  own  previous  record,  and  made  the 
wonderful  mark  of  2:08f .  I  have  never  seen  any  man  under 
any  circumstances  receive  a  greater  ovation  than  this  mare 
did  right  there.  She  was  literally  loaded  down  with 
flowers  and  bouquets  enough  to  have  gladdened  the  heart 
of  the  most  exacting  j^rima  donna. 

A  great  many  people  naturally  thought  that  because 
Maud  S.  had  beaten  her  own  record  everything  in  connec- 
tion with  the  matter  in  the  sha]3e  of  weather  and  track  must 
have  been  first  class.  I  have  had  some  experience  in  driv- 
ing horses  against  the  watch  and  find  there  are  several  things 
often  overlooked  iliat  have  a  very  material  effect  on  the 


LIFE    \V[Tir    THE   TKOTTKIJS.  219 

result.  First  mid  foremost,  of  course,  is  the  kind  of  a  horse 
you  have;  second,  the  condition  that  he  is  in;  third,  the 
track.  At  the  time  of  tlie  Cleveland  trial  there  had  been 
more  or  less  rain,  and  the  weather  was  very  unsettled  for 
two  or  three  days.  This  I  consider  a  vital  element  in  mak- 
ing a  great  performance.  Unsettled  weather  not  only  inter- 
feres with  the  regular  training,  which  it  did  in  this  case,  but 
the  atmosphere  is  apt  to  be  in  a  state  tliat  also  has  more 
effect  on  the  track  than  people  imagine.  When  in  the  be«t 
of  condition  the  Cleveland  track,  to  my  mind,  is  the  fastest 
one  I  have  ever  seen.  On  this  particular  day,  the  track, 
from  recent  rains,  while  it  looked  good  from  the  stand,  was 
inclined  to  be  cuppy  and  moist,  and  there  were  several 
places  that  cupped  out  under  the  mare's  feet,  and  I  noticed 
that  when  she  struck  them  they  retarded  her  progress 
quite  X)erceptibly.  In  talking  the  matter  over  afterward 
with  Bair  and  telling  him  what  my  impressions  were,  he 
agreed  with  me,  and  stated  one  instance  in  particular,  Avhere 
she  turned  in  at  the  head  of  the  stretch.  I  simply  tell  this 
to  give  mj''  views  of  the  case  from  w^here  I  sat,  and  as  I  was 
very  close  to  the  mare  think  perhaps  I  was  in  a  good  posi- 
tion to  be  able  to  judge  of  it  as  well  as  anyone  except  Mr. 
Bair. 

This  mare  came  honestly  !)y  her  speed  at  the  trot.  In 
the  first  place,  her  sire,  Harold,  is  an  inbred  Hambletonian, 
being  by  Rysdylv  s  Haral)letonian,  and  out  of  a  mare  by  Ab- 
dallah,  that  was  the  sire  of  Hambl^^tonian.  This  concentra- 
tion of  blood  that  has  founded  the  most  remarkable  trotting 
family  in  the  world  gave  Harold  a  manifest  advantage  as  a 
sire,  and  time  •  as  shown  that  when  he  has  been  mated  with 
mares  oi  the  Pilot  Jr.  family,  of  which  the  dam  of  ^Maud  S. 
is  a  member,  his  success  in  the  production  of  a  high  rate  of 
speed  and  the  ability  to  carry  it  the  mile  has  been  most 
marked.  The  fact  that  the  dams  of  the  two  fastest  trotters 
in  the  v/orld,  Maud  S.  and  Jay-Eye-See,  are  daughters  of 
Pilot  Jr.,  and  that  the  granddams  are  of  the  Boston  family 
of  thoroughbreds  must  not  be  overlooked.  To  say  that  Maud 

15 


220  LIFE    WITH    THE   TKOTTERS. 

S.  was  br^d  at  Woodburn  would  not  be  enough  in  praise  of 
that  establishment,  Avhich  is  the  oldest  of  its  kind  in  this 
country,  as  well  equipped  in  all  the  fashionable  strains  of 
blood  as  any  and  conducted  in  a  manner  that  has  made  its 
name  known  throughout  the  world,  not  only  by  the  fame  of 
the  horses  that  have  come  from  there  but  also  by  reason 
of  the  business-like  methods  and  the  strict  integrity  of  i:>ur- 
pose  which  have  always  characterized  its  dealings  with  the 
public.  To  have  produced  Maud  S.  Avere  sufficient  to  give 
any  breeding  farm  a  great  reputation,  but  when  one  examines 
the  list  of  American  trotters  that  have  beaten  2:30  and  scru- 
tinizes their  pedigrees  closely,  it  is  simply  wonderful  to  note 
the  frequency  with  which  strains  of  blood  that  may  be  said 
to  have  been  originated  at  Woodburn  are  found.  It  was  at 
Woodburn  that  the  stallion  Pilot  Jr.,  whose  daughters  have 
become  so  famous  as  the  producers  of  trotters,  w^as  given  his 
first  opportunity  in  the  breeding  ranks,  and  with  copious 
infusions  of  this  blood,  together  with  that  of  Mambrino 
Chief  and  a  number  of  his  sons,  topped  by  the  best  thorough- 
bred crosses,  the  result  has  been  a  constant  succession  of 
trotters,  trotting  sires,  and  mares  that  have  i^roduced  trot- 
ters of  the  highest  type, — animals  that  not  only  have  speed, 
but  also  possess  the  vim,  determination  and  stamina  to  fight 
out  a  race  of  split  heats  and  contest  every  inch  gamelj^  when 
they  are  overmatched  as  well  as  when  they  are  winning 
easily,  and,  as  the  owner  of  the  famous  race-horse,  Longfel- 
low, said,  ' '  to  go  from  eend  to  eend. ' '  It  was  from  AVoodburn 
that  Wedgewood,  of  whom  I  have  previously  written,  came, 
and,  as  I  have  also  noted,  the  foundation  of  Mr.  Emory's 
farm  was  laid  by  the  purchase  at  Woodburn  of  a  large 
number  of  colts  and  fillies,  whose  produce  are  making  a  repu- 
tation with  each  succeeding  trotting  season.  When  one 
looks  over  the  catalogue  at  the  Forest  City  farm,  he  sees 
that  the  blood  that  has  made  it  known  is  that  of  the  Wood- 
burn  animals,  and  the  same  is  true  of  other  prominent  estab- 
lishments in  other  parts  of  the  country.  Messrs.  Baker  & 
Harrigan,   a  well  known  New  York  breeding  iirm,  at  one 


LIFE   WITH   THE    TROTTERS.  221 

time  purchased  the  entire  crop  of  yearlings  at  Woodburn. 
Mr.  W.  R.  Allen,  Avliose  breeding  establishment  at  Pitts- 
iield,  Mass.,  has  stai'ted  out  in  a  manner  which  shows  him 
to  be  not  only  unstinted  in  the  expenditure  of  money  but 
also  the  possessor  of  a  keen  judgment  and  extensive  knowl- 
edge in  the  matter  of  trotting  blood,  made  a,  large  draft  from 
Woodburn.  Other  instances  might  be  noted,  but  this  will 
suffice  to  show  the  influence  which  one  establishment,  prop- 
erly conducted,  can  have  on  the  breeding  interest  of  the 
country,  and  how  that  influence  will  continue  for  genera- 
tions. With  Harold,  the  sire  of  Maud  S.,  Belmont,  the  sire 
of  Wedge  wood,  Lord  R-ussel  the  brother  of  Maud  S.,  King- 
Wilkes,  sire  of  Oliver  K.,  and  other  horses  of  less  promi- 
nence, but  perhaps  not  less  merit,  on  its  roll  of  stallions,  it 
can  not  be  but  that  Woodburn  will  always  keep  to  the  front. 
Its  policy,  undei'  the  management  of  Mr.  Brodhead,  has  al- 
Avays  been  an  intelligent  and  progressive  one,  and  this  was 
never  better  shown  than  last  season  when  Mr.  Brodhead 
sent  the  dam  of  Maud  S.,  two  of  her  daughters,  the  dam  of 
Pancoast,  and  one  or  two  other  famous  mares  clear  across 
the  continent  to  be  b  i  ed  to  Electioneer.  He  had  noted  the 
successes  of  the  Californian  stallion,  and,  as  he  has  since 
said  in  print,  it  was  the  Electioneer  cross  that  he  wanted — 
not  any  particular  one  of  the  strains  that  go  to  make  up 
the  pedigree  of  Senator  Stanford's  premier  stallion.  It  is 
this  policy  that  xoervades  all  the  branches  at  Woodburn. 
There  is  no  narrow-minded  plan  of  breeding,  but  the  central 
idea  of  the  management  is  always  to  secure,  retain  and 
develop  the  most  promising  strains  of  performing  trotting 
blood,  no  matter  from  what  source  they  may  come,  and  it 
was  this  policy  that  dictated  the  recent  purchase  of  King- 
Wilkes.  Men  from  all  parts  of  the  country  go  to  Wood- 
burn  every  year  and  buy  horses  with  as  much  confidence  as 
they  would  go  to  Tifl'any's  in.  New  York  to  buy  jewelry. 
They  know  that  the  reputation  of  the  place  will  not  allow 
of  misrepresentation  being  made,  and  that  the  goods  are 
standard.     And  what  wonder  that  a  mare  bred  at  a  place 


222  LIFE   WITH   THE  TKOTTERS. 

like  this  should  enhaiiceitsalready  good  reputation  by  trot- 
ting the  fastest  mile  that  the  world  has  ever  seen. 

The  sensational  trotter  of  1888  was  the  black  gelding 
Guy.  My  experience  with  Gviy  was  very  limited,  as  I 
started  him  in  but  one  race.  When  I  took  charge  of  ]\Ir. 
W.  J.  Gordon's  stable  and  horses  Guy  was  rather  an  uncer- 
tain quantity,  he  having  already  sliown  all  the  speed  that 
has  since  made  him  famous  to  the  public.  I  will  cite  just 
one  instance  of  what  he  did  for  me  to  prove  that  this  horse 
was  a  wonderful  trotter  from  breeding  and  inheritance.  I 
drove  him  a  mile  to  an  ordinary  road  cart  in  2:17^  over  the 
Cleveland  track,  going  eighteen  feet  out  from  the  pole.  In 
this  performance  he  wore  nothing  except  the  harness,  no 
shoes  or  tips  of  any  kind,  no  boots  or  weights.  This  per- 
formance, while  it  may  not  seem  much  to  a  casual  observer, 
now  that  Gun'  has  gone  in  2:12,  impressed  me  more  than  his 
performance  of  2:12  afterward.  To  see  a  horse  go  out  with- 
out mechanical  appliances  of  any  kind,  as  you  w^ould  take 
him  out  of  the  pasture,  and  hook  him  to  a  vehicle  which, 
with  the  driver,  weighed  over  300  i)ounds,  and  with  the 
poles  laid  down  so  that  he  could  not  go  within  eighteen  feet 
of  the  inside  rail,  and  in  those  conditions  trot  a  mile  in  2:17^, 
the  first  half  in  1:10  and  the  last  half  in  1:07^,  and  do  it  in 
a  manner  which  led  a  man  who  was  a  very  close  observer, 
and  saw  the  j^erformance,  to  remark  tiiat  it  was  not  the 
2:17|^  that  he  was  wondering  at,  but  what  he  could  liave 
done  had  I  turned  him  loose  from  the  start  to  finish,  is  what 
stamps  the  pei'formance  as  a  very  notable  one. 

Having  shown  by  this  what  a  wonderful  trotter  Guy  is, 
brings  to  my  mind  a  conversation  that  I  had  had  years  before 
with  that  estimable  gentleman  and  excellent  Judge  of  horses, 
Col.  Richard  West,  of  Georgetown,  Ky.,  concerning  Ken- 
tucky Prince,  the  sii-e  of  Gny.  Long  before  Guy  or  any  of 
the  Kentucky  Prince  family  had  attracted  the  attention  of 
the  trotting  Avoild  by  their  extraordinary  flights  of  speed 
Colonel  West  predicted  for  Kentucky  Prince  the  great  repu- 
tation that  he  has  since  achieved.     Upon  my  asking  him  one 


LIFE   WITH   THE   TROTTERS.  223 

day  what  liorse  to  breed  a  mare  to,  and  giving  liim  her  pedi- 
gree, he  advised  me  to  send  her  to  Kentucky  Prince.  I  was 
ra'.her  surprised,  as  at  that  time  I  liad  not  heard  much  of 
Kentucky  Prince.  He  belonged  at  this  time  to  a  gentleman 
who  bred  more  for  his  own  amusement  than  for  public 
patronage.  Nothing  much  Avas  ever  done  in  the  way  of 
advertising  Kentucky  Piince,  and  for  that  reason  he  was 
partially  overlooked.  I  knew  that  Colonel  West  must  have 
some  very  good  reasons  for  advising  me  to  breed  to  the 
horse,  and  asked  him  to  state  them.  His  first  reason  was 
that  his  breeding  was  good;  then  he  said  that  as  an  individ- 
ual horse  Kentucky  Prince  was  simjjly  perfect.  He  then 
went  on  to  explain  to  me  in  his  genial  mannei'  how  he  had 
received  a  letter  from  a  man  down  in  Bourbon  County 
of  Kentucky,  telling  him  that  the  writer  had  a  wonderful 
stallion  that  he  would  like  to  sell.  The  letter  made  such  an 
Impression  on  Colonel  West  that  one  day  he  took  his  team, 
and  his  trainer  and  friend,  Geo.  Brastield  (a  man  w'ho,  though 
now  retired  from  the  turf,  has  handled  many  famous  trot- 
ters in  their  babyhood,  among  them  Director,  Jay-Eye-See, 
and  Santa  Claus),  and  started  for  t  he  farm  of  the  man  who 
had  written.  He  said  that  when  they  arrived  at  the  fami 
they  found  the  best  crop  of  weeds,  and  the  poorest  cattle, 
he  had  met  in  a  long  time — in  fact  the  whole  county  had  an 
aspect  of  going  to  seed.  On  inquiry  for  his  man  Colonel 
West  was  told  that  he  had  gone  down  to  the  bottom-lands 
to  drive  ujd  the  cows.  He  asked  about  the  horse,  and  an  old 
darky  said  they  had  such  a  horse,  but  the  farmer  had  rid- 
den him  after  the  cows.  He  said  while  waiting  for  the  fann- 
er"'s  return  he  interviewed  the  colored  i)erson  on  the  subject 
of  trotters  in  general,  and  this  horse  in  X'^irticidar,  and  his 
ideas  about  a  trotting  horse  were  something  wonderful.  He 
finally  volunteered  to  show  the  Colonel  the  track  on  which 
this  trotting  horse  was  trained  the  days  that  the  fai-mer  did 
not  have  to  ride  him  after  tlie  cows,  and  as  the  Colonel  had 
nothing  else  to  do  he  bethought  himself  to  pace  off  the  track, 
and  see  wliethcr  it  \\  as  half  a  mile  or  not,  which  he  did,  and 


224  LIFE  WITH  Tin:  tkotters. 

sat  isfied  himself  that  it  was  more  than  that  distance.  When 
tlie  farmer  returned  he  introduced  himself  and  liitched  up  his 
trotter  to  a  vehicle  that  Colonel  West  told  me  he  had  never 
seen  the  like  of  on  any  of  the  circuit  tracks,  and  under  these 
conditions  the  sire  of  Guy  showed  him  a  half  mile  in  1:12. 
People  may  say:  "What  of  1:12^  I  have  colts  that  can  beat 
that."  Yes,  but  a  hidf  mile  under  these  conditions  con- 
vinced Colonel  West,  than  whom  no  better  judge  of  trotting 
horses  ever  lived,  that  Kentucky  Prince  was  a  trotter  of  the 
first  water,  and  he  never  for  one  moment  lost  his  faith,  and 
lived  long  enough  to  have  the  pleasure  of  seeing  the  horse 
demonstrate  all  that  he  had  ever  claimed  for  him. 

At  the  time  of  which  Colonel  AYest  spoke  there  was  not 
much  done  in  Bourbon  County  in  the  way  of  breeding  trot- 
ters. A  man  named  Willets,  who  lived  in  Bourbon  County, 
came  up  to  Edge  Hill,  Colonel  West's  farm,  on  business, 
and  while  there  told  about  a  wonderful  three-year-old  colt 
that  was  owned  by  a  neighbor  of  his  named  Thomas.  This 
colt,  he  said,  was  a  son  of  Clark  Chief,  and  had  shown  half - 
a  mile  in  1:16.  Colonel  West,  was  always  on  the  look- 
out for  fast  colts,  and  he  and  George  Braslield  made  the  trip 
to  above.  They  drove  their  own  team  to  Paris,  and  there 
hired  another  conveyance 'With  which  they  made  their  way 
across  the  country  to  Thomas's  farm.  Braslield  says  the 
place  had  the  forlorn  and  deserted  appearance  described  by 
Colonel  West.  The  track  was  in  a  cornfield  and  all  that 
could  be  seen  of  it  was  a.  space  wide  enough  for  a  sulky  to 
travel  upon. 

When  the  horse  came  back  from  the  trip  after  the  cows 
he  was  pretty  wet,  having  forded  a  creek  only  a  little  while 
before,  but  when  Thomas  hitched  him  up,  Brasfield 
remarked  at  once  how  wonderfully  handsome  he  was. 
They  had  joreviously  paced  off  the  track  and  found  the 
length  to  be  all  right.  The  boj'  avIio  was  to  do  the  driving- 
was  rather  excited  and  started  across  the  field  from  the 
stable  at  a  good  stiff,  i  hree-minute  gait.  After  he  reached 
the  track  he   drove  the   horse  to  a    break  and    this  put 


LIFE   WITH   THE   TROTTERS.  225 

Kentucky  Prince  and  his  jocky  so  muck  at  variance  with 
each  other  tliat  the  colt  became  excited  and  refused  to  trot  at 
all.  Seeing  this  Colonel  West  told  them  to  put  the  animal 
in  the  stable  until  after  dinner,  when  he  would  let  Brasheld 
get  up  behind  him.  This  was  done  and  Brasheld  drove 
Kentucky  Prince  a  quarter  in  forty  seconds,  repeating  him 
in  thirty-seven  seconds.  This  was  enough  for  Colonel 
West,  because  at  that  time  the  best  mile  by  a  three-year-old 
trotter  was  the  2:29  of  Lady  Stout,  and  it  was  evident  that 
with  very  little  handling  Kentucky  Prince  could  beat  that. 
Colonel  West  thereupon  bought  the  colt  for  $7,000,  and  the 
next  day  he  was  taken  to  Edge  Hill. 

About  ten  days  later  Col.  John  W.  Conley,  now  of 
Chicago,  but  who  was  at  that  time  a  resident  of  New  York 
City  reached  Edge  Hill  during  one  of  his  numerous  trips 
to  Kentucky,  and  of  course  he  was  told  about  the  colt.  It 
was  arranged  to  show  him  the  following  day  and  although 
lie  was  still  far  from  being  in  condition  to  do  his  best  Bras- 
field  drove  him  half  a  mile  in  lilOJ.  Colonel  Conley  had  at 
this  time  a  standing  commission  from  Mr.  A.  B.  Darling  of 
New  York,  to  buy  for  that  gentleman  any  stallion  that  came 
up  to  certain  requirements  as  to  physical  appearances  laid 
down  by  Mr.  Darling,  and  that  could  also  show  speed.  The 
Colonel  felt  satisfied  that  in  Kentucky  Prince  he  had  found 
a  horse  that  would  exactly  suit  Mr.  Darling,  and  so  bought 
him  for  $12,500  and  shipped  him  to  New  York,  upon  arriv- 
ing at  which  place  Mr.  Darling  at  once  took  Kentucky 
Prince,  being  more  than  satisfied  at  Colonel  Conley' s  action 
in  the  matter. 

There  is  a  rather  funny  storj^  in  connection  with  the  sub- 
sequent sale  of  Kentucky  Prince  at  auction,  that  has  never 
before  been  made  public.  When  Thomas,  the  breeder  of 
the  horse,  learned  that  the  horse  was  to  be  sold  he  had  an 
idea  that  perhaps  he  would  go  for  far  less  than  his  value,  and 
so  without  saying  anything  to  his  neighbors  he  j^acked  his 
grip  and  started  for  New  York  City,  having  decided  to  pay 
as  much  as  $2,500  foi-  the  horse.     He  was  on  hand  bright  and 


226  LIFK    uITH   TlIK   TKOTTKMS. 

early  on  the  day  of  the  sale,  but  when  Kentucky  Prince  was 
led  out  the  first  bid  on  him  Avas  $5,000,  and  in  a  little  while 
he  was  struck  oif  at  $10,000.  Mi-.  Thomas  took  one  o-ood 
look  at  the  horse  and  Avent  back  to  Kentucky,  and  it  was  a 
year  later  that  he  first  mentioned  the  circumstance. 

That  Kentucky  Prince  must  have  impressed  his  present 
OAvner,  Mr.  Chas.  Backman,  of  Stony  Ford,  N.  Y.,  in  the  same 
manner  that  he  did  Colonel  West  is  shown  by  the  fact  that 
when  the  stallion  AA^as  put  up  at  auction  sale  in  New  York 
seA'eral  years  ago,  and  at  a  time  AA'hen  the  depression  in  all 
values  had  affected  the  horse  market  to  a  marked  degree, 
Mr.  Backman  uas  j)i'esent  and  paid  $10,000  for  him,  fully 
believing  there  was  a  great  future  for  the  son  of  Clark  Chief. 
At  this  time  the  ^3 render  stallion  of  Mi-.  Backman\s  farm 
was  Messenger  Duroc,  a  horse  of  marked  success  as  the  sire 
of  trotters,  and  in  addition  to  him  Mr.  Backman  had  numer- 
ous sons  of  Rysdyk's  Hambletonian,  and  a  band  of  brood 
mares  of  the  American  Star,  Mambrino  Chief  and  (jtlier 
fashionable  families,  Avhose  rex)utation  AAas  knoAvn  in  all 
parts  of  the  country.  It  is  under  Mr.  Backman' s  manage- 
ment that  Kentucky  Prince  has  attained  a  foremost  place 
among  the  stallions  of  America,  and  Avith  the  exception  of 
Electiorweer  there  is  no  stallion  to-day  Avho  so  completely 
fills  the  public  mind.  In  addition  to  the  2:12  of  Guy  last 
season,  Kentucky  Prince  had  another  notable  rei)resenta- 
tive  on  the  turf  in  the  black  gelding  Spofford,  that  Avon  the 
$10,000  stake  at  Hartford,  beating  a  large  field  of  the  best 
horses,  and  making  a  record  of  2:1S|.  Spoftbrd  is  faster 
than  his  record  shoAvs,  as  I  have  seen  him  go  lialt'  a  mile  in 
a  race  better  than  1:06  and  timed  him  a  mile  in  2:1  Of.  Lilve 
Woodburn,  the  farm  at  Stony  Ford,  of  Avhicli  Mr.  Back- 
man  has  long  been  the  OAA^ier,  has  an  important  effect 
on  the  trotting  interests  of  this  country.  Animals  bred 
there  are  reiDresentative  ones,  the  strains  of  blood  from 
which  they  come  are  those  that  have  been  tested  in  the 
fire  of  the  grand  circuit  races,  and  they  have  not  been 
found  wanting.     Green  Mountain  Maid  is,  in  the  opinion  of 


LIFE    WITH    THE   TUOTTEKS.  227 

many  horsemen  and  l)ieeders,  the  greatest  brood-mare  that 
the  world  has  ever  seen,  for  in  addition  to  liaving  six  sons 
and.  daughters  in  the  2:30  list,  andanotlier  one  with  a  record 
of  2:31.  she  is  also  dam  of  Electioneer,  the  most  famous 
stallion  now  alive.  More  than  this,  the  blood  of  Green 
Mountain  Maid  is  i)otent  on  ll)oth  sides  of  the  house.  Not 
only  has  her  son  Electioneer  sired  the  fastest  young  trotters 
in  the  world,  but  one  of  her  daughters,  Elaine,  that  beat  all 
the  records  for  tliree- year-olds  when  she  was  of  that  age 
and  afterward  obtained  a  mark  of  2:20,  is  the  dam  of  the 
filly  Norlaine  that  in  1887  set  the  yearling  record  at  2:31^. 
a  performance  which  no  other  trotter  of  lier  age  has  ap- 
proached, and  had  not  Norlaine  been  destroyed  by  the  fire 
at  Palo  Alto  the  following  spring  there  is  little  doubt  as  a 
two-yeai'-okl  slie  would  have  beaten  2:20.  Not  only  have  the 
produce  of  Stony  Ford  made  themselves  famous  on  the 
turf  but  that  establishment  has  been  the  fountain  from 
which  other  breeders  have  made  drafts  for  the  purpose  of 
establishing  breeding  farms  in  vaiious  parts  of  the  country, 
and  these  have  been  uniformly  successful.  When  Governor 
Stanford  began  his  operations  at  Palo  Alto  one  of  his  first 
moves  was  to  visit  Stony  Ford  and  purchase  8-43,000  worth 
of  breeding  stock,  among  the  animals  being  Electioneer,  for 
whom  he  paid  $12, 500,  and  to  this  horse  is  due  the  fame  of  his 
sons  that  made  Palo  Alto  famous  throughout  the  world  as 
the  birthplace  of  the  fastest  baby  trotters.  At  that  time  it 
was  thought  an  extraordinary  occurrence  for  a  man  to  invest 
so  much  money  in  animals  for  breeding  purposes,  but  Gov- 
ernor Stanford  has  proved  the  wisdom  of  his  investment, 
and  shown  that  the  money  has  conie  back  to  him  one  hun- 
dredfold. 

This  has  been  the  experience  of  other  men  who  have  made 
drafts  from  Stony  Ford  for  breeding  purposes,  and  the  most 
noticeable  illustration  of  the  esteem  in  which  that  establish- 
ment is  held  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  Mr.  Wm.  Russell 
Allen,  whose  farm  at  Pittsfield,  Mass.,  starts  out  under 
auspices  singularly  favorable,  went  to   Stony  Ford  and  at 


228  lAFK    WITH    Till-:    l' ROTTERS. 

one  i)urchase  transferred  from  the  ownership  of  Mr.  Back- 
man  to  that  of  himself  no  less  than  $44, 000  worth  of  trotting- 
bred  stock,  the  largest  purchase  of  the  kind  ever  made  in 
the  world  for  breeding  purposes.  To  mention  Stony  Ford 
Avithout  bringing  in  the  name  of  Johnny  Hoag  would  leave 
the  subject  incomplete.  He  is  like  some  of  the  colts,  took 
his  first  lessons  in  horses  at  Stony  Ford,  and  to  say  that  he 
has  improved,  and  kept  up  with  the  colts,  and  with  the 
breeding,  only  partially  tells  the  truth.  As  a  handler  and 
trainer  of  colts  he  is  rated  by  those  who  are  supposed  to  be 
judges  as  in  the  first  class  of  that  profession. 

In  this  connection  I  might  mention  a  grandson  of  Ken- 
tucky Prince  which  I  had  in  my  charge  for  a  short  time — 
I  mean  the  black  gelding  J.  Q.  by  Kentucky  Prince. 
When  I  say  that  I  consider  this  horse  one  of  the  fastest  I 
ever  drove  I  think  his  performances  will  bear  me  out.  J.  Q., 
like  Guy,  seemed  to  be  born  with  his  trot  in  him.  The 
lirst  time  I  saw  him  he  was  in  the  hands  of  a  man  who  at 
that  time  had  not  made  much  reputation  for  himself  as  a 
horse  trainer.  J.  Q.  is  one  of  the  best  evidences  of  my  argu- 
ment that  all  great  horses,  like  poets,  are  born  and  not 
made;  in  other  words  that  their  speed  is  a  natural  gift  and  not 
a  developed  quality,  and  I  can  cite  some  very  notable  in- 
stances in  support  of  this  idea.  The  first  time  I  ever  saw 
Johnston  the  pacer  he  could  pace  for  a  short  distance  as 
fast  as  I  ever  saw  him  go  afterward.  By  this  I  do  not 
want  to  be  understood  as  saying  that  he  could  have  gone  a 
mile  in  2:06|^  at  that  time,  but  I  know  that  he  was  cai:)able 
of  pacing  100  yards  at  that  rate  of  speed.  The  first  time  I 
saw  Mattie  Hunter  she  had  all  the  speed  that  she  had, when 
she  went  a  mile  in  2: 12|.  The  same  can  be  said  of  Little 
Brown  Jug,  Rarus,  and  Maud  S.  St.  Julien  is  a  very 
noticeable  instance.  I  saw  him  brush  close  to  a  2:20  gait 
the  day  he  was  sold  for  $600. 

In  the  case  of  J.  Q.,  at  the  commencement  of  his  career 
he  was  fast  enough  to  warrant  the  belief  that  some  day  he 
would  go  a  very  fast  mile.     He  was  handed  about  from  one 


LIFE    \V\TU   THE   TROTTERS.  229 

trainer  to  another,  whicli,  bj'  the  way,  I  consider  a  very  bad 
practice,  as  no  matter  how  mucii  exjDerience  a  man  may 
have  had  or  how  capable  he  is,  you  need  never  expect  to 
get  the  best  results  out  of  a  horse  by  having  him  trained 
and  driven  by  a  number  of  different  j)eople,  even  if  they 
are  all  first  class.  Every  man  trains  a  horse  differently, 
every  man  drives  them  differently  and  when  you  take  into 
consideration  the  fact  that  in  order  to  bring  a  horse  to  his 
best  possible  condition  and  speed,  years  of  careful  training- 
are  required,  you  can  pei'haps  see  that  frequent  changes  of 
trainers  are  a  detriment.  When  J.  Q.  was  placed  in  my 
charge  I  for  one  thought  his  days  of  usefulness  were 
about  over.  He  at  that  time  had  a  record  of  2:17^.  He 
had  been  rather  unfortunate,  having  been  out  of  condition 
and  lost  races  to  horses  with  slower  records.  The  first  race 
I  drove  him  he  was  defeated,  but  still  his  performance 
rather  opened  my  eyes  to  the  fact  that  J.  Q.  was  a  little 
better  horse  than  either  myself  or  the  public  gave  him  credit 
for  being.  That  the  public  realized  the  fact  I  doubt  very 
much,  as  I  noticed  that  whenever  J.  Q.'s  name  appeared  as  a 
starter  in  a  race  it  never  created  any  very  great  sensation 
among  the  betting  fraternit3^ 

The  second  race  still  further  convinced  me  that  I  had 
made  no  mistake  about  his  ability  and  that  he  was  liable  to 
be  a  right  good  horee.  The  third  race  made  such  an  im- 
pression on  my  mind  that  I  took  his  owner  aside,  and  we 
commenced  to  lay  i)lans  to  spread  our  net  and  make  a  haul 
that  would  include  the  sturgeon  as  well  as  the  suckers. 

This  was  in  the  summer  of  1887,  and  I  had  taken  J.  Q. 
to  the  Detroit  meeting  and  trotted  him  there  and  at  Cleve 
land  and  Buffalo  against  Arab,  Charley  Hilton,  and  some 
other  horses  that  were  supposed  to  out-class  him  a  great 
deal.  Arab  was  a  star  trotter  through  the  circuit  that  j^ear. 
Orrin  Hickok  had  him  in  charge,  and  as  the  next  best  one 
in  his  class,  Charley  Hilton  was  driven  l)y  my  friend 
William  H.  Crawford;  these  two  gentlemen  from  California 
had  thus  far  generally  been  able  to  take  first  and  second 


230  LIFE    WITH    THE    TIIOTTEKS. 

money  in  free-to-all  races  at  every  j)lace,  and  J.  Q.  was 
left  with  what  he  could  find.  But  at  Rochester  the  i)ie  was 
cut  in  a  different  manner.  In  the  betting  Arab  sold  for 
$100,  and  the  held,  including  J.  Q.,  Hilton,  and  otlier  per- 
formers, went  for  anything  that  you  would  bid.  In  the 
previous  races  I  had  put  in  some  of  my  si^are  time  Avatching 
the  peculiarities  of  the  horses  I  had  to  contend  with  and 
trying  to  see  what  my  chances  were  for  beating  them.  I 
did  not  think  it  was  $100  to  $10  that  Aral^  could  out-trot 
J.  Q. ,  and  when  I  imparted  that  information  to  Mr.  Temple, 
J.  Q.'s  owner,  he  quietly  placed  some  of  his  money  on  the 
black  horse  at  those  odds,  and  we  went  out  for  the  money. 

I  think  there  was  hardly  a  man  on  the  track  who 
expected  to  see  the  great  race  that  took  place  betAveen  Aiab 
and  J.  Q.  In  the  liYst  heat  I  laid  my  horse  up  and  Arab 
won  easily.  In  the  .next  heat  in  getting  the  Avord  Arab 
was  a  little  back,  and  Jack  Feek  Avith  Kitefoot  cut  him  off 
at  the  turn,  Avhicli  put  him  in  a  pocket  and  Ilickok,  seeing 
the  disadvantage  that  he  was  at,  immediately  pulled  his 
horse  up.  I  set  sail  with  J.  Q.,  and  won  the  heat  in  about 
2:19.  This  made  no  change  in  the  betting;  if  anything  Arab 
Avas  a  bigger  faA^orite  than  before,  tlius  enabling  us  to  place 
some  more  of  our  money  at  the  same  odds.  When  they 
gave  the  Avord  in  the  next  heat  Hickok  rushed  out  Avith 
Arab  and  took  the  lead.  I  contented  myself  by  trailing 
within  a  length  of  him.  We  reached  the  quarter  pole  in 
that  order,  and  there  was  no  change  at  the  half-mile  pole, 
where  we  turned  up  in  about  1:10.  Around  the  upper  turn 
I  moved  up  so  that  my  horse  Avas  as  close  to  Ilickok  as 
was  safe,  and  sat  still  until  Ave  got  Avell  into  the  stretch. 

Arab  and  J.  Q.  Avere  tAvo  very  brushy  horses.  I  had 
often  talked  Avith  Hickok  about  the  tAvo  horses,  and  he  had 
always  said  they  were  not  to  be  mentioned  the  same  day, 
and  rather  lost  patience  Avith  me  as  I  undertook  to  argue 
that  J.  Q,  might  be  able  to  give  Arab  a  very  fair  race.  At 
the  seven-eighths-mile  pole  I  pulled  J.  Q.  out  into  the  track 
and  took  off  the  brakes.     From  there  to  the  judges'  stand 


LIFE    WITH    THE   TROTTERS.  231 

it  was  a  liorse-race,  and  J.  Q.  won  by  an  eyelash  in  2:17^. 
From  the  look  on  Hickok's  face  after  we  finished  I  imagine 
that  he  was  as  surprised  a  man  as  yon  would  often  see,  and 
the  public  commenced  to  realize  that  they  were  to  be  treated 
to  a  genuine  horse-race. 

When  we  came  out  for  the  next  heat  Hickok  asked  the 
judges  to  be  sure  and  see  that  he  was  in  his  x^lace  when 
they  said  "go,"  which  they  j)i'0 noised  to  do.  I  made  the 
same  request  of  them.  When  the  word  was  given  both 
horses  were  on  their  stride,  and  again  Arab  rushed  out  with 
the  lead.  The  heat  was  trotted  identically  as  the  one 
before,  with  the  exception  that  we  might  have  commenced 
our  brush  a  little  further  down  the  stretch.  I  went  to  the 
half-mile  pole  in  about  1:10,  and  home  in  about  2:17J,  J.  Q. 
beating  Arab  a  head  in  the  last  stride,  thereby  winning  the 
race  and  money,  and  giving  the  cheap  boys  a  chance  to  get 
a  few  good  tickets  cashed  at  night. 

J.  Q.  was  a  peculiar  horse,  and  often  trotted  in-and-out 
races,  and  sometimes  the  public  imagines  of  such  a  horse 
that  his  driver  is  not  honestly  trying  to  win,  when  the  facts 
of  the  case  are  otherwise.  In  disposition  J.  Q.  was  rather 
a  high-strung,  thin-skinned,  nervous  horse,  inclined  to  be 
peevish,  and  after  making  an  effort  like  the  one  he  made  in 
this  race  it  seemed  to  take  him  weeks  before  he  recovered 
the  form  that  enabled  him  to  perform  at  his  best  speed.  I 
have  had  other  horses  that  possessed  the  same  peculiarities, 
although  perhaps  not  in  as  marked  a  degree.  At  Utica  he 
was  beaten,  and  at  Albany  the  same,  but  at  Hartford  I 
had  my  revenge,  as  he  beat  Spofford  in  a  race  that  General 
Turner  had  set  his  heart  on  winning,  for  which  he  had  got 
the  watermelon  all  ripe,  and  the  New  York  men  came  over 
in  a  body  with  their  cash  and  check-books,  and  backed  the 
little  General  and  Spofford  in  a  manner  that  showed  their 
confidence  to  be  nnlimited. 

This  was  rather  a  peculiar  race,  as  both  horses  were  bred 
much  alike,  and  Mr.  Albert  Hall  of  New  York  and  David 
Bonner,  two  reliable  men,  told  me  that  J.  Q.  trotted  a  half- 


232  LIFE   WITH   THE  TROTTERS. 

mile  in  one  heat  in  1:()5|.  In  all  the  races  I  had  seen  Turner 
drive  Spofford  he  went  easy  with  him  until  he  reached  the 
half-mile  pole,  and  made  his  brush  from  there  home.  I  had 
repeatedly  seen  him  come  home  in  1:06^,  but  for  all  that  I 
thought  J.  Q.  could  come  home  better  than  Spofford,  and 
the  result  of  the  race  proved  that  I  was  right,  as  Spofford 
trotted  two  of  the  fastest  heats  I  had  ever  seen  him  trot  in 
a  XHiblic  race,  and  J.  Q.  beat  him.  Both  Turner  and  myself 
laid  up  in  the  hrst  heat,  each  seeming  to  think  that  the 
other  Avas  the  only  one  they  had  to  beat  in  the  race.  In  the 
second  heat  Turner  scored  up  as  though  he  was  out  for  the 
money,  and  I  determined  to  keep  my  eye  on  him  alone.  We 
went  to  the  half-mile  pole  in  about  1:12,  the  other  horses 
some  distance  in  the  lead.  At  that  point  Turner  turned  his 
horse  loose,  and  I  did  likewise  and  J.  Q.  won  in  about  2:18. 
The  next  heat  w^as  the  same,  Turner  and  myself  trailing  side 
by  side  to  the  half-mile  i)ole.  Spofford  led  into  the  stretch 
and  all  the  way  to  within  about  three  lengths  of  the  judges' 
stand,  where  J.  Q.  caught  him  and  beat  him  out  in  2:17^, 
equaling  his  own  best  record.  The  next  heat,  having  two 
to  my  credit,  to  make  it  doubly  safe,  I  laid  J.  Q.  up,  and 
Spofford  won  from  the  other  horses  in  about  2:21.  When 
they  gave  the  word  in  the  next  heat  I  trailed  away  until 
well  in  the  back  stretch,  where  I  set  J.  Q.  going.  At  the 
half  mile  pole  he  had  the  lead,  and  from  there  home  won 
easily,  thereby  furnishing  a  good  day's  racing  for  the  public 
with  a  son  and  grandson  of  the  same  horse  Kentucky  Prince. 

On  two  occasions  when  the  well-known  trotter  Cling- 
stone, one  of  the  fastest  liorses  of  his  day,  performed  before 
the  public  I  had  to  do  with  the  transaction,  and  consequently 
it  will  not  be  out  of  the  way  to  say  something  of  those  events. 

The  first  time  was  when  Mr.  Dunbar  asked  me  to  accom- 
pany Clingstone  with  a  runner  in  a  trial  against  the  watch 
that  Dunbar  was  booked  to  give  him  at  the  Cleveland  meet- 
ing in  the  summer  of  1885.  Dunbar  told  me  at  the  time  that 
he  thought  Clingstone  would  go  a  mile  in  2:14,  which  was 
his  best  record.     I  was  a  little  surprised  to  hear  this,  as 


LIFE   WITH   THE   TROTTERS.  233 

Clingstone  had.  been  practically  retired  from  the  turf  for  a 
couple  of  years,  and  I  did  not  imagine  tliat  he  was  back  to 
his  old-time  form.  The  sequel  proved  that  Mr.  Dunbar  was 
right,  and  it  also  showed  that  Mr,  Dunbar  was  not  only  a 
good  reinsman  but  also  a  good  conditioner  and  an  excellent 
judge  of  pace,  two  very  imi)ortant  things  in  a  horse-trainer. 
When  the  trial  took  place  Clingstone  trotted  in  exactly  2:14, 
but  I  have  always  been  positive  that  Mr.  Dunbar  could  have 
driven  him  faster.  His  reasons  for  not  doing  so  were  that 
this  was  the  first  time  he  had  attempted  anything  of  the 
kind  with  Clingstone,  and  he  was  naturally  anxious  to  avoid 
any  mistakes  that  would  turn  the  trial  into  a  disappoint- 
ment to  the  public,  but  as  matters  turned  out  both  the  public 
and  Mr,  Gordon,  the  owner  of  the  horse,  were  greatly  pleased. 

In  the  latter  part  of  that  season,  Mr.  Dunbar  having  in 
the  meantime  severed  his  connection  with  the  Gordon  stable. 
Clingstone  was  entered  in  a  race  against  Harry  Wilkes,  to 
be  trotted  over  the  Detroit  track,  and  it  was  in  this  event 
that  I  first  sat  behind  him  in  public.  Harry  Wilkes  was 
at  this  time  the  star  of  the  trotting  turf,  having  beaten  all 
comers  and  made  a  record  of  2:15.  There  is  a  little  history 
about  this  race,  or  rather  preceding  it,  that  will  read  well  in 
this  connection. 

At  the  time  the  match  with  Clingstone  was  made  Harry 
Wilkes  was  at  the  Cleveland  track,  and  it  was  reported 
around  that  he  had  gone  a  m  oonlight  trial  in  2 :  09 .  There  were 
some  people  credulous  enough  to  take  stock  in  this  story.  I 
was  one  of  the  unbelievers,  but  the  men  who  were  booming 
Harry  Wilkes  stuck  to  their  tale,  and  even  went  so  far  as 
to  talk  about  trotting  him  against  Maud  S.  One  evening  Mr. 
Gordon  called  on  me  with  a  letter  he  had  received  from  New 
York,  and  said  he  would  like  to  read  me  a  portion  of  it,  which 
he  did.  I  have  in  my  time  seen  some  very  flowery  horse  letters, 
but  to  this  particular  epistle  I  award  the  pennant.  I  have 
never  to  this  day  learned  the  writer's  name,  but  would  like 
to  know  it,  in  order  that  he  might  be  given  a  niche  in  the 
Temple  of  Fame  alongside  of  Swinburne  and  others  who 


234  LIFK   WITH   THE  TIIOTTKHS. 

have  gained  a  reputation  in  that  line.  The  gist  of  the  letter 
was  that  Harry  Wilkes  could  easily  beat  Maud  S.,  and  it 
closed  by  saying  that  he  could  trot  a  mile  in  2:09  and  "fin- 
ish as  calm  as  a  summer  morning."  Mr.  Gordon  seemed  to 
think  there  must  be  something  to  this,  but  I  told  him  it  was 
too  calm  to  be  true,  and  further  said  that  if  Clingstone  was 
himself  he  would  beat  Harry  Wilkes  sure.  We  had 
eighteen  days  in  which  to  get  Clingstone  ready  for  the  race, 
and  the  first  time  I  worked  him  I  was  a  little  surprised  and 
disappointed.  He  seemed  dull,  sluggish,  and  without  much 
speed.  After  careful  inquiry  of  Phil  Biley,  the  boy  who 
rubbed  him,  I  found  that  there  had  not  been  much  done  with 
the  horse  in  the  way  of  speeding.  He  had  been  given  a 
good  deal  of  long,  slow  work  on  the  track,  and  long  jogs  on 
a  sandy  road.  He  showed  a  disposition  to  want  to  lie  down 
and  sleep  a  great  deal  in  the  daytime,  which  I  think  very 
unnatural  in  a  horse.  I  asked  Phil  how  much  he  had  been 
feeding  Clingstone,  and  he  replied  that  the  horse  had  been 
getting  about  fifteen  quarts  a  day.  When  I  weighed  the 
oats  I  found  they  went  about  thirty -six  j)ounds  to  the 
bushel,  and  this  proved  to  me  that  he  was  being  a  good  deal 
overfed.  Clingstone  always  looked  to  me  as  though  he  car- 
ried too  much  body  for  the  size  of  the  horse.  Phil  said  they 
had  a  great  deal  of  trouble  with  him,  and  were  obliged  to 
keep  him  muzzled  in  order  to  x^revent  him  eating  his  bed- 
ding, etc.  I  made  up  my  mind  that  if  Clingstone's  condi- 
tion did  not  alter  very  jDerceptibly  he  would  not  cut  much 
of  a  figure  in  the  race  with  Harry  Wilkes. 

My  first  move  was  to  call  in  Dr.  Fair,  the  veterinary,  to 
whom  I  gave  a  description  of  the  horse's  condition  as  well 
as  I  could  see  it.  Dr.  Fair  decided  to  give  Clingstone  medi- 
cine to  act  on  his  stomach,  said  the  horse  had  been  overfed, 
and  advised  me  to  not  let  him  have  more  than  eight  pounds 
of  oats  a  day,  a  moderate  feed  of  hay,  with  plenty  of  grass 
and  occasionally  a  couple  of  tablespoonfuls  of  Glauber's  salts 
in  his  feed.  I  had  myself  often  tried  the  plan  of  giving  a 
horse  salts  while  in  training,  and  always  with  the  best 


LIFE  WITH  THE  TROTTERS.  235 

results.  If  your  horse  gets  what  the  boys  call  "burnt  up " 
give  him  a  few  doses  of  salts  instead  of  bran,  and  you  will 
find  the  result  much  more  satisfactory.  I  have  given  a 
horse  thirty  doses  of  salts  in  as  many  successive  days  with 
good  results.  Dr.  Fair  said  that  if  Clingstone  did  not 
improve  he  would  change  the  medicine,  but  as  his  condition 
at  once  altered  for  the  better  we  followed  this  treatment 
until  the  race  was  over.  In  working  Clingstone  I  gave  him 
very  short,  sliarj)  jogs,  stepped  him  a  three-minute  gait  foi 
a  little  way  almost  everyday,  and  every  three  days  worked 
him  out  a  couple  of  heats  close  to  2:20  and  brushed  him  the 
last  j)art  of  the  mile  as  fast  as  he  could  go,  the  result  being 
that  every  time  I  drove  him  I  liked  him  better. 

Eight  days  before  the  race  I  took  him  to  Detroit,  and 
on  reaching  there  about  five  o'clock  in  the  morning  the  first 
man  to  meet  me  at  the  dock  was  Capt.  John  DeMass,  who 
had  appointed  himself  a  committee  of  one  to  receive  me. 
We  rode  to  the  track  together,  and  after  having  Clingstone 
placed  in  a  comfortable  stall  I  was  introduced  to  the  super- 
intendent, who  invited  me  to  go  out  and  inspect  the  track 
and  see  what  I  thought  of  its  condition.  I  found  the  course 
as  near  first-class  as  anything  I  ever  saw,  and  the  superin- 
tendent one  of  the  few  men  who  knew  how  to  keep  it  in 
really  superb  shape.  I  think  that  if  track  owners  knew 
how  many  horses  are  injured  by  tracks  being  out  of  condi- 
tion they  would  pay  more  attention  to  this  matter.  They 
seem  to  think  that  any  man  who  can  follow  a  harrow  around 
is  good  enough  to  superintend  a  track,  but  if  they  will  go 
and  sx)end  one  day  with  "  Race- track  Jack"  at  Cleveland 
when  he  is  getting  things  ready  they  will  learn  something 
that  I  am  sure  will  be  of  advantage  to  them.  The  next 
day  I  gave  Clingstone  some  work,  and  for  the  first  time  was 
really  pleased  with  him.  I  drove  him  a  mile  in  2:19,  the 
last  half  in  1:06,  which  was  the  best  mile  I  stepped  him  in 
his  work  before  the  race.  From  that  day  I  never  missed 
giving  him  a  mile  as  good  as  three  minutes,  never  jogged 
him  more  than  three  miles,  and  walked  him  but  very  little. 

16 


236  LIFE   WITH   THE   TROTTERS. 

I  could  see  that  the  medicine  was  operatino-  on  his  stomach. 
We  kept  him  tied  np  through  the  day  so  that  he  could  not 
eat  his  bedding,  but  did  not  muzzle  him.  I  divided  the 
eight  pounds  of  oats  into  five  feeds,  and  gave  him  in  addi- 
tion a  small  quantity?-  of  hay  night  and  morning.  Every 
day  he  seemed  to  get  brighter,  sharper,  and  have  more  dash 
and  speed.  From  what  I  had  seen  of  the  horse  in  Lis  turf 
career  I  made  up  my  mind  that  whenever  he  had  jolenty  of 
speed  it  took  a  race-horse  to  beat  him.  I  had  heard  joeople 
say  that  he  was  what  you  would  call  a  soft  horse,  but  as 
good  a  judge  of  a  trotting  horse  as  David  Bonner  once  re- 
marked in  my  presence  that  there  was  nothing  in  Cling- 
stone' s  breeding  to  indicate  it,  he  having  in  his  j^edigree  a 
combination  of  the  blood  of  Rysdyk's  Hambletonian, 
American  Star  and  the  best  thoroughbred  cross  that  was 
ever  in  a  trotting  pedigree,  that  of  Lexington. 

This  race  was  in  some  respects  a  battle  between  strains  of 
blood  that  had  their a^espective  partisans.  I  have  told  how 
Clingstone  is  bi^ed,  and  Harry  Wilkes  was  also  in  fashion- 
able lines,  his  sire,  George  Wilkes,  like  the  sire  of  Cling- 
stone, being  by  Eysdyk's  Hambletonian,  while  on  his 
dam's  side  there  was  the  blood  of  the  j)acer  Captain 
Walker,  a  horse  that  in  addition  to  the  dam  of  Harry 
Wilkes  had  also  sired  the  dam  of  Black  Cloud,  a  stallion  that 
had  made  a  record  of  2:17^,  and  went  some  good  races  where 
the  heats  were  split.  People  from  all  parts  of  the  country 
came  to  Detroit  to  see  this  race,  among  them  many  breeders, 
and  prominent  in  this  section  of  the  throng  were  Mr.  Sam- 
uel A.  Browne  and  United  States  Senator  Stockbridge  of 
Michigan,  who  were  then,  as  now,  proprietors  of  one  of  the 
largest  breeding  establishments  in  the  West,  it  being  located 
at  Kalamazoo,  Mich.  As  they  were  naturally  anxious  to 
have  on  their  jjlace  stallions  and  mares  of  the  best  strains 
of  blood  they  had  come  to  see  the  race  between  these  two 
representative  horses.  To  show  that  Messrs.  Browne  & 
Stockbridge  are  men  of  liberal  and  progressive  methods, 
once  their  mind  is  made  up,  it  may  be  said  that  they  were 


LIFE   WITH   THE  TEOTTERS.  237 

the  first  breeders  in  the  country  to  pay  $5,000  for  a  yearling 
colt,  they  Laving  purchased  at  that  figure  the  stallion  Bell 
Boy,  a  son  of  Electioneer  and  Beautiful  Bells,  that  at  the 
time  of  this  transaction  had  already  produced  Hindaa  Rose, 
three-year-old  record  2:19^,  and  St.  Bell,  2:24^;  and  two 
others  of  the  produce  of  Beautiful  Bells  have  since  entered 
the  2:30  list.  After  keeping  Bell  Boy  a  year  and  winning 
a  large  number  of  valuable  stakes  with  him,  Messrs.  Browne 
&  Stockbridge  sold  him  for  the  long  price  of  $35,000,  and 
at  once  filled  his  i3lace  with  animals  of  equal  merit  in  the 
matter  of  breeding.  They  have  on  their  farm  Ambassador, 
a  son  of  George  Wilkes,  that  is  not  only  a  trotter  himself,  but 
that  is  siring  extreme  speed,  as  is  shown  by  Lady  Wilkins, 
Harry  "Wilkes,  and  others  of  his  g^  t  that  have  beaten  2:20. 
Another  stallion  of  wonderfully  good  blood  lines  owTied 
at  the  Browne  farm  is  Warlock,  and  there  is  quite  a  story 
to  be  told  in  connection  with  him.  Warlock  is  by  Belmont, 
perhaps  the  best  son  of  Alexander's  Abdallah,  and  his  dam 
is  the  famous  old  mare  Waterwitch,  that  has  produced 
Viking,  2:19i;  Mambrino  Gift,  2:20;  Scotland,  2:22^ ; 
Wavelet,  2:24^  and  Waterloo,  2:29^,  while  three  of  her 
daughters  have  already  become  the  dams  of  four  trotters 
that  have  beaten  2:30.  While  still  a  youngster  Warlock 
was  purchased  in  Kentucky  by  an  English  gentleman  of 
horsey  tastes  who  was  traveling  in  this  country  and  shijDped 
across  the  water.  After  Viking  had  shown  great  speed  J. 
E.  Madden,  better  known  as  "  Happy  Jack,"  a  young  man 
than  whom  there  are  few  better  judges  of  blood  lines  and 
other  things  pertaining  to  trotters,  discovered  that  War- 
lock, the  full  brother  of  ViMng,  had  been  sent  across  the 
sea,  and  the  next  steamer  that  left  New  York  had  Madden 
for  a  passenger,  his  mission  being  to  find  Warlock  and  bring 
him  back  to  this  country.  Arrived  on  the  other  side.  Mad- 
den lost  no  time  in  sight-seeing,  but  took  train  for  an  in- 
land county,  where  Warlock,  his  tail  banged  in  the  most 
approved  style  was  doing  duty  in  the  stud,  being  advertised 
as  "  an  American  hackney  stallion."     To  hear  Madden  tell 


238  LIFE  WITH   THE  TROTTERS. 

tlie  story  of  that  trip  is  worth  a  long  journey,  but  suffice  it 
to  say  at  this  time  that  he  got  the  horse  for  $5,000,  shipped 
him  to  America,  and  soon  after  reaching  here  re-sold  War- 
lock to  Messrs.  Brown  &  Stockbridge  for  $15,000.  That 
this  horse  will  get  trotters  is  not  to  be  doubted,  as  his  rela- 
tives trot  fast,  and  his  pedigree  contains  the  strains  of  blood 
— Rysdyk's  Hambletonian  and  Pilot  Jr. — that  have  given 
us  Maud  S.  and  Jay-Eye-See,  the  two  fastest  trotters  in  the 
world. 

The  brood-mares  at  the  Browne  farm  are  standard  under 
the  highest  rule  that  has  yet  been  formulated.  They  are 
either  the  possessors  of  records  of  2:30  or  better  themselves, 
have  produced  a  2:30  trotter,  or  are  out  of  mares  to  Avhom 
the  same  distinction  attaches,  and  when  it  is  said  that  every 
one  of  them — 100  per  cent — come  under  this  head  the  high 
standard  of  the  farm  in  regard  to  blood  lines  is  seen.  Some 
of  these  mares  are  by  Grand  Sentinel,  a  horse  that  Mr. 
Browne  selected  many  years  ago,  when  he  was  alone  in  the 
breeding  business.  Being  by  Sentinel,  a  full  brother  to  Vol- 
unteer, it  was  natural  that  Grand  Sentinel  should  trot  fast, 
and  had  it  not  been  for  an  accident  in  training  he  would  un- 
doubtedly have  greatly  bettered  his  record  of  2:27^,  as  in  his 
work  he  could  trot  quarters  in  35  seconds,  and  that  he  was 
a  brave,  level-headed  and  determined  horse  he  showed  in 
his  races,  winning  the  ones  in  which  the  heats  were  split. 
Empire,  another  stallion  on  the  Browne  &  Stockbridge  farm, 
is  already  well  known  by  reason  of  having  sired  Eminence, 
that  as  a  four-year-old  last  season  showed  herself  one  of  the 
best  of  her  age  that  has  ever  come  out,  winning  nearly  all 
her  races  and  making  a  record  of  2 :21  J. 

The  night  before  the  Clingstone -Wilkes  match  the  town 
was  filled  with  people  who  had  come  from  all  parts  of  the 
country.  All  their  talk  was  of  the  race,  and  the  chances  of 
Clingstone  beating  Harry  Wilkes  were  eagerly  discussed. 
The  friends  of  Harry  were  very  sanguine,  and  the  betting 
was  $100  to  $50  in  favor  of  their  horse.  Mr.  France,  Harry' s 
owner,  told  Mr.  Gordon  that  he  was  sure  Wilkes  was  in  first- 


LIFE   WITH   THE   TROTTERS.  239 

class  condition  and  would  win  the  race  with.  ease.  Mr. 
Gordon  asked  me  what  I  thought  about  it,  and  I  made  an- 
swer that  I  thought  it  took  a  j)retty  smart  man  to  be  in  New 
York,  while  the  horse  was  in  Detroit,  and  tell  anything 
ubout  the  animal's  condition,  and  so,  while  we  did  not  go 
about  advertising  the  fact,  both  Mr.  Gordon  and  myself  felt 
that  our  horse  had  a  chance  to  win.  The  morning  ot  the  race 
dawned  clear  and  long  before  noon  the  crowds  began  to  wend 
their  way  to  the  track.  I  had  Clingstone  shod  with  shoes 
weighing  eleven  ounces  ajDiece,  with  leather  pad  and  sponge. 
The  track  was  as  hard  and  smooth  as  it  could  be.  In  the 
betting  Wilkes  was  the  favorite  all  the  time  and  the  talent 
put  their  money  on  him  at  $100  to  $50. 

In  warming  up  Clingstone  I  gave  him  two  slow  heats, 
stepiDed  him  out  at  three-quarter  sj)eed  in  the  last  eighth  of  a 
mile,  and  liked  him  so  well  that  I  told  Mr.  Gordon  that  if 
we  drew  the  j^ole  we  would  win  the  race  sure.  I  had  seen 
Van  Ness  behind  Wilkes  so  often  I  thought  I  knew  just  how 
he  would  drive  this  race,  which  would  be  to  go  moderately 
to  the  half-mile  pole  and  then  cut  loose  and  try  and  win. 
When  they  drew  for  positions  Clingstone  won  the  pole. 
We  scored,  I  should  think,  five  or  six  times,  each  driver 
watching  the  other  like  two  men  who  get  up  to  sj^ar.  The 
word  was  finally  given,  when  Clingstone  stepped  out  and 
took  the  lead  and  went  to  the  half-mile  pole  two  lengths  in 
front.  There  Van  Ness  began  drivmg  WiUves,  and  when 
we  made  the  turn  at  the  three-quarter  pole  they  were  head 
and  head.  From  there  to  the  seven-eighths-mile  2:)ole  they 
went  like  a  double  team,  and  both  horses  doing  their  best. 
Wilkes  broke  and  Clingstone  beat  him  home  easilyin2:15f. 

This  heat  resulted  just  as  I  expected  it  would.  I  told 
Mr.  Gordon  before  we  got  the  word  that  I  believed  Cling- 
stone would  out-trot  Wilkes  when  it  came  to  the  struggle, 
and  that  I  thought  the  heat  would  all  be  decided  in  some 
one-quarter  of  the  mile.  I  was  satisfied  to  go  as  slow  as  Van 
Ness  wanted  to  and  leave  the  battle  to  a  brush,  as  in  his  work 
Clingstone  had  shown  speed  enough  to  convince  me  that 


240  LIFE   WITH   THE   TROTTEES. 

Wilkes  could  not  by  any  possibility  ont-trot  him.  At  the 
half -mile  pole  when  I  heard  Van  Ness  cut  Wilkes  loose,  while 
I  did  not  sit  down  and  drive  Clingstone,  I  let  him  sail  along 
at  about  the  top  of  his  sj)eed.  Wilkes  closed  the  gap  and 
came  to  Clingstone' s  head  and  in  doing  so  had  to  trot  out 
around  him  on  the  turn.  I  made  up  my  mind  that  when 
he  turned  in  at  the  head  of  the  stretch  I  would  send  Cling- 
stone for  all  he  was  worth,  w  hich  I  did,  and  he  did  to  Harry 
Wilkes  what  I  had  not  previously  seen  a  horse  do,  and  that 
was  to  fairly  trot  him  off  his  feet.  When  Wilkes  broke  he 
acted  to  me  like  a  horse  that  had  for  once  found  out  when 
he  had  enough, 

After  the  heat  I  sent  word  to  Mr.  Gordon  that,  bariing 
an  accident,  the  race  was  over.  Clingstone  would  win  sure. 
To  show  the  difference  between  the  i^ublic  and  the  driver 
sometimes,  I  will  state  that  after  the  first  heat  Wilkes  was 
a  bigger  favorite  in  the  betting  than  he  was  before  the 
horses  started.  In  the  second  heat  Clingstone  beat  him 
easily  from  start  to  finish  in  2:17^.  In  this  heat  Wilkes 
gave  it  up  at  the  head  of  the  stretch,  having  had  made  his 
brush  early  in  the  mile.  About  this  time  the  boys  about 
the  pool -box  who  had  been  betting  on  Wilkes  commenced 
to  trim  their  sails  for  a  storm.  When  the  horses  scored  for 
the  third  heat  and  got  the  word  they  went  away  head-and- 
head,  and  trotted  like  a  team  to  the  half-mile  jDole  in  1:08. 
From  there  to  the  judges'  stand  the  race  was  as  close  and 
exciting  as  one  could  wish,  and  ended  by  Clingstone  win- 
ning by  a  short  head  in  2:16,  Wilkes  making  a  much  better 
finish  than  he  had  in  the  heat  before.  I  have  been  asked 
how  I  accounted  for  Wilkes  trotting  himself  to  a  standstill 
in  2:17|-  and  then  coming  back  the  next  heat  in  2:16.  I  do 
it  in  this  way:  Van  Ness  had  not  come  across  any  horse 
that  Wilkes  could  not  out-trot  easily,  and  for  that  reason 
the  horse  had  not  been  keyed  up  or  asked  to  go  his  best  for 
a  long  while,  and  when  he  struck  Clingstone,  who  had 
speed  enough  to  go  a  2:10  gait,  it  put  what  the  boys  called 
' '  a  crimp ' '  in  him. 


LIFE   Yv'ITIi    THE  TROTTERS.  241 

Wlien  the  race  was  over  Clingstone  received  an  ovation, 
was  given  one  of  the  handsomest  floral  pieces  I  ever  saw  on 
the  track,  one  that  would  have  made  glad  the  heart  of  the 
most  exacting  prima  donna.  This  race  proved  to  me  one 
thing,  that  if  you  are  selected  to  drive  a  race  don't  be  afraid 
to  go  out  and  take  the  chances,  or  in  other  w^ords,  you  are 
the  doctor  and  the  one  to  decide  whether  or  not  to  cut  off 
the  patient' s  arm.  In  training  Clingstone  for  the  race  I  had 
been  cautioned  by  a  great  many  people  not  to  work  him  too 
hard,  they  saying  that  he  was  one  of  tlie  kind  that  did  not 
need  any  work.  I  have  never  yet  seen  a  horse  that  could 
trot  a  hard  race  of  mile  heats,  three  in  five,  at  anything 
like  the  top  of  his  speed  and  not  have  plent}^  of  work.  I 
gave  Clingstone  all  the  work  I  thought  he  ous:ht  to  have, 
was  not  backward  in  changing  his  shoes  or  doing  anything 
for  him  that  I  thought  would  be  for  the  better,  and  the 
result  showed  the  wisdom  of  the  course,  he  not  only  win- 
ning the  race,  but  the  average  of  the  three  heats  was  nearly 
as  good  as  he  or  Wilkes  had  ever  trotted  in  public  in  their 
long  career.  Mr.  Gordon  seemed  much  pleased  at  the  result 
of  the  race,  complimented  me  on  what  he  considered  my 
ability,  and  paid  me  a  fee  that  would  have  made  glad  the 
heart  of  a  star-route  lawyer. 

Incidental  reference  has  been  made  to  the  breeding  farm 
at  Pittsfield,  Mass. ,  of  Mr.  W.  R.  Allen,  a  man  young  in 
years,  as  well  as  exjDerience  in  breeding  trotters,  but  that  his 
ideas  are  of  the  right  kind,  founded  on  a  careful  and  intel- 
ligent study  of  the  subject  of  blood  lines  in  trotters,  can  not 
be  doubted  after  one  looks  over  the  list  of  animals  he  has 
collected  at  his  farm,  and  sees  with  what  uniformity  the 
lines  of  their  pedigree  go  in  the  direction  of  actual  speed 
production  of  the  highest  type,  and  that  it  has  been  tested 
on  the  race-track  and  not  been  found  wanting. 

Mr.  Allen  became  famous  as  a  breeder  ])y  one  stroke,  so 
to  si^eak,  he  having  gone  to  Stony  Ford  farm,  and  made  a 
draft  of  very  choice  animals,  the  same  including  representa- 
tives of  its  most  famous  animals,  and  for  these  he  j)aid  the 


242  LIFE    WITH    THE   TKOTTEKS. 

sum  of  $44,000.  A  purchase  at  Woodbum,  whicli  amounted 
to  nearly  $25,000,  x^receded  tliis,  and  since  then  he  has  at 
various  times  and  places,  added  to  his  establishment  animals 
of  the  choicest  breeding,  never  letting  values  stop  him  where 
the  strains  of  blood  rex)resented,  were  such  as  he  desired. 
It  was  this  spirit  that  led  him  to  visit  the  farm  of  Robert 
Bonner  not  many  months  ago,  and  pay  $15,000,  for  Miss 
Majolica,  a  full  sister  to  Majolica,  record  2:15. 

In  the  way  of  stallions  at  his  farm,  Mr.  Allen  has  a 
remarkable  lot  of  horses.  His  j)remier  sire  is  Lancelot,  by 
Messenger  Duroc,  dam  Green  Mountain  INIaid,  thus  making 
him  a  full  brother  to  Elaine,  2:20;  Daaie  Trot,  2:22;  Pros- 
pero,  2:20;  Mansfield,  2:26;  Storm,  2:26|;  Antonio,  2:28J, 
and  Miranda,  2:31.  It  will  be  seen  that  in  Lancelot,  Mr. 
Allen  has  a  horse  that  in  blood  lines  is  as  nearly  a  duplicate 
of  Electioneer  as  could  have  been  x)roduced  at  the  jd resent 
time,  he  being  out  of  Electioneer' s  dam,  and  by  one  of  the 
best  sons  of  the  horse  that  sired  Electioneer,  so  that  so  far 
as  pedigree  is  concerned  there  is  but  little  difference  between 
tlie  tw  o  animals,  except  in  the  fact  that  Lancelot  is  so  young 
that  his  success  as  a  sire  of  trotters  is  still  to  be  attained. 
It  should  be  remembered  that  not  only  in  the  male  line  has 
the  blood  of  Green  Mountain  Maid  proved  wonderfully  suc- 
cessful, but  that  one  of  her  daughters,  Elaine,  is  already 
credited  with  the  fastest  yearling  that  the  world  has  ever 
seen,  her  daughter  IS'orlaine  having  made  a  record  of  2:31^ 
at  that  age.  Some  of  her  sons  have  also  been  siring  trotters 
that  have  become  distinguished  by  their  perfonnances,  and, 
on  the  whole,  it  would  be  difficult  to  imagine  a  better  horse 
than  Lancelot,  when  all  the  circumstances  are  taken  into 
consideration.  But  not  content  with  securing  a  represent- 
ative of  the  blood  lines  that  produced  Electioneer,  Mr. 
Allen  determined  to  so  equip  himself  in  the  matter  of  stal- 
lions that  by  no  possibility  could  he  be  at  any  time,  through 
the  death  of  any  one  of  them,  seriously  impeded  in  his 
plans,  and  with  this  end  in  view  he  purchased  America,  a 
black  horse  by  Kentucky  Prince,  and  out  of  Alma  that  made 


LIFE   WITH   THE   TROTTERS.  243 

a  record  of  2:28|  in  her  old  age,  and  that  is  a  full  sister  to 
Dexter,  2:17^. 

Two  famous  sons  of  Kentucky  Prince  are  Guy,  2:12, 
Si:)oflord,  2:18f,  that  won  a  $10,000  purse  at  Hartford  last 
year.  In  America  we  have  this  blood  joined  with  that  which 
produced  Dexter,  who  was  far  and  away  the  fastest,  gamest, 
most  reliable  trotter  of  his  time,  and  that  this  blood  is  more 
than  ordinarily  potent  is  seen  by  the  fact  that  Dictator, 
Dexter  s  full  brother,  has  given  such  wonderfully  fast,  game, 
reliable  trotters  as  Jay-Eye-See,  2:10,  Phallas,  2:13|,  Direct- 
or, 2:17,  and  more  than  a  dozen  others  that  have  beaten  2:30. 

Ordinary  men  would  have  been  satisfied  with  the  pos- 
session of  such  stallions  as  Lancelot  and  America,  but  Mr. 
Allen  recognized  the  fact  that  while  they  were  from  strains 
of  blood  that  had  produced  very  high  speed  at  the  trot,  his 
idea  was  to  get  as  near,  relatively,  to  Maud  S. ,  the  fastest 
trotter  in  the  world,  as  was  possible.  With  this  end  in 
mind  he  purchased  at  Woodburn  the  stallion  Yarrow, 
whose  sire  is  Lord  Russell,  full  brother  to  Maud  S. ,  and 
whose  dam,  Yolande,  has  given  us  Yuba,  2:24^,  and  Yazoo, 
2:34^.  Yolande  is  a  daughter  of  Belmont,  one  of  the  fastest 
sons  of  Alexander's  Abdallah,  so  that  in  Yarrow  Mr.  Allen 
has  a  horse  whose  lines  of  blood  have  been  uniformly  suc- 
cessful. Mention  has  already  been  made  of  the  fact  that 
Mr.  Allen,  in  selecting  brood-mares,  had  in  view  the  indis- 
putable fact  that  trotting  blood  is  on  the  whole,  the  most 
successful  in  the  proj)agation  of  sj)eed  at  the  trot,  and  the 
animals  on  his  place  trace  back  without  exception  to  the 
best  trotting  mares  in  the  land.  More  than  this,  their  near 
relatives  are  in  every  case  trotters  themselves.  He  has  for 
instance,  Rusina,  that  is  by  Belmont  out  of  dam  Maud  S. ; 
Maudlien  2:2i5|,  by  Harold,  sire  of  Maud  S.;  dam  sister  to 
Nutwood,  2:18|;  Elista  full  sister  of  Elaine,  2:20;  Malvasia 
by  Lord  Russell,  brother  to  Maud  S.,  out  of  Malmaison, 
that  produced  Mannette,  trial  2:16^;  Ashima,  by  Lord  Rus- 
sell, dam  Alice  West,  2:26,  that  produced  Altamura,  2:30; 
Salve,  by  Lord  Russell,  dam  Noonday,  her  dam  Midnight, 


244  LIFE    WITH   THE   TKOTTEKS. 

the  dam  of  Jay-Eye-See,  2:10;  Wateiieaf,  by  Belmont,  third 
dam  the  famous  Pilot  Jr.  mare  Waterwitch;  Edita  by 
Kentucky  Prince,  out  of  a  sister  of  Elaine;  Mirella  a  sister 
of  Edita;  Brenda  by  Kentucky  Prince,  dam  Miss  Brunette, 
the  dam  of  Black  Prince,  2:2o^;  Fedora,  by  Kentucky 
Prince,  out  of  a  sister  of  Hogarth,  2:26;  Guy  da,  by  Messen- 
ger Duroc,  dam  sister  to  Guy,  2:12,  and  a  dozen  others 
whose  blood  lines  lead  directly  to  turf  performers  and  whose 
names  are  well  and  favorably  known. 

That  Mr.  Allen' s  venture  in  the  breeding  of  trotters  will 
be  a  successful  one  is  not  to  be  doubted.  He  is  a  man  of 
great  executive  ability,  of  marked  enterprise,  and  with  a 
firmness  of  purpose  that  will  attain  almost  any  end  which 
it  seeks.  His  investment  thus  far  is  the  most  extensive  ever 
made  by  a  beginner  in  the  ranks  of  breeders  and  is  a 
notable  instance  of  what  wealth  and  well-directed  energy 
may  accomplish. 


CHAPTER  X. 

Nobby,  the  most  peculiar  horse  Splan  ever  drove;  a  wild,  scary  fellow  that  had 
a  wonderful  flight  of  speed —  The  race  at  Cleveland  in  which  Nobby 
beat  a  lot  of  cracks — Mr.  David  Bonner's  well-remembered  compliment — 
Stuffing  a  horse's  ears  with  cotton,  and  some  incidents  connected  with  the 
practice — Needle  Gun,  and  the  trouble  he  made  on  a  ferry  boat — W.  J. 
Gordon's  horses,  his  breeding  farm,  and  his  character  as  a  man  —  Chat 
about  what  certain  drivers  have  done  with  particular  families  of  horses  — 
Protection's  great  race  against  J.  B.  Richardson. 

The  bay  gelding  Nobby  was  the  most  peculiar  horse  that 
I  ever  trained  or  drove.  Peculiar  in  disposition,  peculiar 
in  formation,  and  peculiar  in  gait.  The  first  time  I  ever 
saw  him  George  Saunders  was  working  him  out  over  the 
Cleveland  track.  Nobby  belonged  to  Mr.  Gordon,  he  hav- 
ing bought  him  in  Kentucky  for  $5,000  the  previous  winter. 
He  had  more  of  the  gray  hound  appearance  about  him  than 
any  other  trotting  horse  I  ever  saw,  being  extremely  long 
in  neck,  body,  etc  ,  and  when  in  motion  looked  to  be  at 
least  two  inches  higher  behind  than  in  front.  When  I  first 
saw  him  he  was  indulging  in  some  very  wild  breaks,  and 
don't  think  I  ever  saw  a  trotter  that  could  run  any  faster  and 
jump  any  higher  in  harness  than  he  could.  At  this  particu- 
lar time  he  seemed  to  be  using  every  effort  in  that  direction. 
When  he  did  go  on  a  trot  it  was  with  a  long,  low,  easy  gait 
that  took  him  over  the  ground  at  a  much  faster  pace  than 
one  would  imagine  by  looking  at  him.  He  put  me  in  mind 
some  of  Calmar,  a  horse  I  had  driven  some  years  before  for 
Mr.  George  Baker  of  Cleveland.  In  looking  Nobby  over  care- 
fully I  was  very  much  struck  with  his  race-horse  f  onnation. 
Asking  the  groom  about  him  I  found  he  had  been  trotted 
with  some  success  and  had  a  record  of  about  2:25.     I  never 

(345) 


246  LIFE   Vv'ITH   THE   TROTTEKS. 

saw  anything  more  of  liim  until  tlie  siininier  meeting  that 
came  off  at  Cleveland,  but  heard  that  he  had  been  trotted 
some,  not,  however,  being  able  to  win.  From  the  first  time 
I  saw  him  I  had  an  idea  I  would  like  to  drive  him,  little 
dreaming  that  I  ever  s^'hould.  One  day  in  talking  about 
him  in  the  presence  of  Mr.  William  Edwards,  I  remarked 
that  Nobby  was  one  horse  I  would  like  to  drive.  The  next 
day  Mr.  Edwards  said  he  wanted  me  to  do  something  for 
him,  which  was  to  drive  a  horse  in  a  race.  I  told  him  that 
I  would.  When  he  told  me  that  Nobby  was  the  animal,  I 
was  a  little  astonished,  but  he  explaiiied  that  he  had  seen 
Mr.  Gordon  and  arranged  with  him  that  I  should  drive  the 
horse  in  his  race,  which  was  to  come  off  on  Friday,  this 
conversation  taking  place  Tuesday.  Wednesday  morning 
I  went  out  to  make  Nobby' s  acquaintance.  In  talking  the 
matter  over  with  Mr.  Saunders,  Nobby' s  trainer,  he  gave 
me  all  the  points  he  could  in  regard  to  the  horse's  peculiari- 
ties, and  ordered  the  boy  to  hitch  him  up  for  me.  My  first 
trip  behind  Nobby  was  rather  discouraging.  While  he  had 
plenty  of  speed  he  seemed  thoroughly  uncontrolable;  acted 
sore  all  over,  and  after  thinking  it  over  I  Avent  to  Mr. 
Edwards,  tried  to  get  him  to  release  me  from  driving  the 
horse  and  to  induce  Mr.  Gordon  to  draw  him  from  the  race, 
all  of  which  he  declined  to  do,  and  insisted  on  holding  me 
to  my  contract  of  driving  him.  I  had  Nobby' s  shoes  taken 
off,  and  on  examining  his  feet  found  them  somewhat  bruised 
and  fevered.  I  put  his  feet  in  warm  water  for  an  hour, 
then  had  them  thoroughly  poulticed  and  did  not  i)ut  shoes 
on  him  again  until  an  hour  before  the  race,  when  I  had 
him  shod  with  leather  j)ads  and  a  sponge  and  a  light  toe 
weight. 

In  the  betting  Secret,  a  mare  owned  by  Mr.  Emory,  was 
the  favorite.  She  having  shown  well  in  her  race  the  previous 
week  at  Pittsburgh,  the  talent  all  thought  she  was  the 
right  one.  Felix  had  the  German  vote  with  him.  Florence 
M.  represented  Indiana,  and  President  Harrison's  neigh- 
bors all  put  their  money  on  her.     So  little  were  Nobby' s 


LIFE   WITH   THE   TEOTTEES.  247 

chances  thought  of  that  at  the  finish  of  the  race  the  only- 
man  proven  guilty  of  having  had  a  j)ool-ticket  on  him  was 
a  Yankee  of  the  name  of  Skinner,  who  was  Mr.  Gordon's 
superintendent,  and  had  been  instrumental  in  having  him 
buy  the  horse.  Ii^  rigging  N"obby  for  the  race,  I  put  a  very 
easy  bit  on  him,  with  a  nose-band  attachment,  an  over-check 
and  long  martingales,  and  stuffed  his  ears  with  cotton,  as 
at  this  particular  time  the  twitter  of  a  canary  bird  on  a 
limb  would  have  more  effect  on  Nobby  than  a  full  brass 
band  on  an  ordinary  horse.  He  could  jump  higher,  farther, 
and  quicker  without  any  provocation  than  any  horse  I  ever 
saw. 

I  decided  to  lay  him  up  the  first  heat,  and  Florence 
won  from  start  to  finish  in  2:22|,  which  was  rather  a  sur- 
prise, as  she  had  never  before  shown  anything  like  that 
speed.  In  this  heat  Nobby  seemed  to  have  his  mind  on 
everything  else  except  trotting,  but  after  giving  him  a 
thorough  cooling  out  I  found,  in  scoring  for  the  second  heat, 
that  he  acted  somewhat  better,  and  determined  if  he  got  off 
well,  to  try  and  get  as  good  a  i^lace  as  I  could.  When  the 
word  was  given  Nobby  was  the  last  horse,  which  position 
he  held  until  they  turned  into  the  back  stretch.  Going 
from  there  to  the  head  of  the  stretch  he  trotted  by  about 
half  the  field.  At  this  j)oint  Felix,  Florence  M.,  and 
Secret  had  the  stretch  to  the)nselves  and  the  only  open  x^lace 
that  I  could  see  was  in  the  middle  between  Secret  and  Flor- 
ence M.  I  drove  Nobby  in  there,  but  as  the  hole  was  not 
very  large  it  made  him  uneas}',  and  just  as  he  reached  the 
wire,  which  he  crossed  first,  he  and  Secret  made  a  break  and 
finished  the  heat  with  Nobby  first.  Secret  second,  and  Flor- 
ence M.  third,  all  lapped  on  each  other.  In  deciding  the 
heat  the  judges  gave  the  heat  to  Florence  M.,  setting  the 
other  two  horses  back  for  the  break,  and  no  time  was  given. 
In  the  third  heat,  Felix  rushed  awaj^"  and  at  the  half-mile 
pole  Nobby,  in  trying  to  out-trot  George  Voorhies,  Avho 
had  his  long  whip  with  him,  went  to  a  wild  break,  and 
I  made  no  further  attempt  with  him  that  heat. 


248  LIFE   VriTH   THf]  TROTTERS. 

In  the  fourth  heat,  Felix  went  away  first  and  Nobby 
last,  which  positions  they  maintained  until  the  half-mile 
j)ole  was  reached,  and  then  Nobby  began  one  of  his  wonder- 
ful brushes,  and  when  he  turned  into  the  home  stretch  I  took 
him  to  the  extreme  outside  of  the  track,  so  that  he  should 
have  no  excuse  for  making  a  break,  thinking  that  if  he 
staid  on  a  trot  he  would  surely  win  the  heat,  which  he  did, 
but  there  was  nothing  very  sure  about  it,  as  he  was  first  to 
the  wke  by  only  a  short  head  in  2:23|.  No  one  paid  much 
attention  to  this,  as  it  looked  to  me,  and  I  think  everyone 
else,  like  a  scratch  heat.  In  the  fifth  heat  the  word  "go'' 
Avas  not  cold  out  of  the  starting  judge's  mouth  before 
Nobby  indulged  in  some  of  the  tallest  breaking  I  ever  saw, 
which  of  course  lost  him  all  chance  of  the  heat,  and  Felix 
woD  easily  in  2:25.  As  all  the  horses  with  the  exception  of 
Felix,  Nobby,  and  Florence  M.,  were  then  sent  to  the  stable 
for  not  winning  a  heat  in  five,  everybody  wanting  a  i:>ool- 
ticket  bought  it  on  Felix.  Tlie  odds  did  not  seem  to  make 
any  difference,  as  it  looked  like  a  sure  thing.  By  this  time 
the  Blue  Bull  quality  had  come  to  the  surface  in  Florence 
M.,  and  she  was  xiractically  out  of  the  race. 

When  the  judges  gave  the  word  in  the  sixth  heat  it  was 
raining  slightly  and  the  track  was  a  little  muddy.  At  the 
half-mile  i^ole  Felix  was  at  least  ten  lengths  in  the  lead  and 
going  as  though  he  never  expected  to  surrender.  At  that 
point  Nobby  commenced  gradually  to  close  the  gap,  and  at 
the  head  of  the  stretch  was  within  about  five  lengths  of 
Felix.  From  there  to  the  judges'  stand  they  had  one  of  the 
best  contests  I  remember  of.  At  the  distance  stand  Nobby 
got  his  head  to  Felix's  wheel.  McCarthy  drew  his  whip 
and  the  crowd  shouted  for  him  to  "come  on!"  but  it  was  too 
late,  as  Felix  had  shot  his  bolt,  and  Nobby  beat  him  to  the 
stand  an  eyelash. 

The  betting  now  took  a  change,  and  the  speculators 
seemed  about  to  lose  their  lives.  They  had  first  played 
Secret,  then  Florence  M.,  and  hedged  on  Felix,  and  then  to 
have  Nobby  come   along  and  look  like    a   winner  made 


LIFE   WITH   THE  TKOTTEKS.  249 

them,  as  Paddy  Dooley  said,  think  that  another  Black  Fri- 
day was  at  hand.  I  myself  had  but  very  little  confidence 
as  to  Nobby' s  winning  the  race.  I  knew  that  at  the  least 
provocation  he  woidd  break,  and  that  would  end  whatever 
chance  he  might  have  to  beat  Felix.  The  track  had  by  this 
time  become  soft  and  sticky,  and  with  Nobby' s  long,  low 
gait  I  considered  that  against  him.  They  gave  the  word 
and  I  went  off  with  the  lead.  On  reaching  the  back  stretch 
I  pulled  out  from  the  pole  about  the  width  of  the  sulky. 
Knap  came  along  with  Felix  and  tried  to  go  through  between 
me  and  the  fence.  I  didn'  t  make  the  S]}ace  any  wider  just 
then,  so  he  had  to  pull  out  and  go  around  me  ;  but  he  did 
this,  and  at  the  half-mile  pole  was  three  lengths  in  the  lead 
and  driving  Felix  for  all  there  was  out.  When  he  turned 
into  the  home  stretch  he  pulled  well  out  into  the  middle  of 
the  track,  thinking,  as  I  imagine,  that  I  would  go  outside 
of  him,  but  that  was  not  my  intention.  I  took  Nobby  in 
close  to  the  pole,  and  when  he  was  straightened  well  into 
the  stretch  gave  him  his  head.  The  heavy  footing  did  not 
suit  him,  however,  and  he  seemed  willing  to  give  it  ux3.  As 
he  had  his  ears  full  of  cotton  it  Avas  of  no  use  to  speak  to 
him,  so  I  took  the  last  dying  chance  and  reached  over  and 
touched  him  with  the  whip,  not  knowing  what  he  might  do, 
but  he  staid  on  the  trot,  and  at  the  distance  stand  again 
had  his  head  on  Felix's  wheel.  Kna^)  used  his  whij)  and 
voice  the  best  he  could  and  those  who  had  backed  Felix 
shouted  for  him  to  come  on.  Both  horses  tired  very  badly, 
and  Nobby  tried  to  break,  but  staggered  out  and  won  the  heat 
by  a  short  head  in  2:28|. 

The  winning  of  this  race  pleased  me  more  than  all  the 
other  performances  with  a  trotter  that  I  had  taken  part  in, 
and  I  want  to  record  the  fact  right  here.  It  may  seem  strange 
to  my  readers,  when  they  take  into  consideration  the  fact  that 
I  have  driven  some  of  the  best  and  fastest  horses  the  country 
has  ever  seen,  that  it  should  be  such  a  gratification  to  me  to 
win  a  race  with  a  horse  I  had  no  interest  in,  and  with  the 
time  as  slow  as  2:28f,  but  nevertheless  such  was  the  case. 


250  LIFE   WITH  THE   TROTTERS. 

Of  the  only  two  compliments  ever  paid  me  that  I  took  much 
stock  in,  one  was  by  Mr.  David  Bonner  in  regard  to  this 
race,  he  saying  that  he  had  been  going  to  trotting  races  for 
thirty  years,  and  that  this  was  the  best  driven  one  he  had 
ever  seen.  The  other  compliment  might  be  considered  rather 
a  second-hand  one  by  most  j)eople,  but  it  pleased  me  im- 
mensely at  the  time.  I  was  once  introduced  to  a  lady,  and 
after  a  pleasant  chat  she  asked  a  friend  of  mine  what  my 
business  was.  He  said  I  was  one  of  the  celebrated  horse 
drivers  of  America,  and  she  said :  "  Why,  how  mistaken  I 
was.  I  took  him  for  a  gentleman."  The  boys  all  thought 
they  had  the  laugh  on  me.  While  I  was  sorry  to  have  the 
lady  deceived  I  was  glad  to  know  that  my  appearance  was 
even  that  good. 

I  have  spoken  of  filling  Nobby' s  ears  with  cotton,  and 
want  to  give  a  word  of  caution  in  regard  to  the  matter.  A 
great  many  horses  treated  in  this  manner  will  act  as  though 
they  were  dumb — will  not  try  to  go,  and  will  stop  to  shake 
their  heads  when  they  are  asked  to  trot.  If  you  have  a 
horse  that  you  think  will  do  better  with  this  treatment  com- 
mence Avith  him  gradually.  That  is,  in  his  work  put  just  a 
little  cotton  in  his  ears  at  first,  or,  what  is  still  better,  put  it 
in  his  ears  while  he  is  in  the  stable,  and  let  him  get  used 
to  it  in  that  manner.  After  you  have  done  this  a  few  times 
the  horse  pays  no  attention  to  it.  Bella,  the  bay  mare  that 
I  won  a  good  race  at  Springfield,  Mass. ,  with,  as  told  in  a 
previous  chapter,  would  go  out  and  work  alone,  be  very 
steady,  and  break  and  catch  as  well  as  any  horse  I  ever  saw, 
but  in  com^oany  she  seemed  uneasy,  wanted  to  break  more, 
and  would  not  catch  as  well,  particularly  in  a  close  place.  We 
tried  the  cotton  dodge  on  her,  and  after  she  became  used  to  it 
the  scheme  worked  to  a  charm.  There  are  a  great  many  horses 
that  will  do  well  with  the  same  treatment,  but  I  would  not 
advise  its  indiscriminate  use.  There  is  a  funny  story  in  con- 
nection with  this  subject  that  is  well  worth  telling.  A  good 
many  years  ago  Mr.  Frank  Ferguson,  of  New  York  City,  was 
training  a  horse  called  Needle  Gun,  and  it  was,  by  the  way, 


LIFE   WITH  THE   TKOTTEES.  251 

the  most  appropriate  name  I  ever  knew  a  trotter  to  have, 
as  he  was  always  cocked  and  primed  and  ready  to  go  oil  at 
the  sliglitest  notice.  Wlien  in  tlie  vicinity  of  tlie  steam  cars 
or  ferry  boats  Needle  Gun  was  i)erfectly  wild,  and  in  order 
to  handle  him  at  all  it  was  necessary  to  always  stuff  his  ears. 
One  day  they  shipped  Needle  Gun  across  on  the  Thirty- 
fourth  street  ferry.  About  the  time  the  boat  landed  at 
Hunter' s  Point  Needle  Gun  got  the  cotton  out  of  his  ears 
and  staited  in  to  unload  himself.  Although  everybody  on 
deck  at  the  time  turned  to  stop  him  he  tore  out  through  the 
ferry  house  and  injured  himself  so  seriously  that  he  was 
never  afterward  of  any  account. 

Years  ago,  when  l>an  Mace  was  a  kind  of  handy  boy 
about  Boston,  one  of  the  old-time  sports  made  a  race  and 
started  in  to  drive  his  own  horse.  He  broke  and  acted  wild 
in  the  first  two  heats,  and  the  owner  invited  Mace  to  take  a 
seat  behind  him.  Mace  put  some  cotton  in  the  horse's  ears, 
drove  him  the  balance  of  the  race,  and  won  it.  That  night 
the  owner  took  his  old  horse  home  and  the  next  time  Jie 
drove  the  animal  found  a  great  change  had  come  over  him. 
Nothing  in  the  way  of  noise  seemed  to  have  any  effect  on 
the  horse,  and  when  he  si)oke  to  him  the  old  fellow  waited 
to  be  hit  with  the  whip  before  he  moved.  The  owner  was 
somewhat  alarmed  and  wondered  what  Mace  had  done  to 
the  horse  that  he  did  not  get  over  the  effects  in  three  weeks. 
He  sought  out  Mace  and  interviewed  him  confidentially  on 
the  subject.  Mace  innocently  told  him  he  could  not  imagine 
what  ailed  the  horse,  but  on  examining  him  the  thought 
struck  him  that  the  cotton  had  never  been  removed  from  his 
ears,  which  proved  to  be  the  case,  and  when  they  took  the 
cotton  out  the  old  horse  seemed  to  heave  a  sigh  of  relief  and 
the  owner  found  he  Avas  himself  again. 

This  race  with  Nobby  was  the  first  I  ever  drove  for  Mr. 
Gordon,  and  as  I  have  been  connected  with  that  gentleman's 
horses  more  or  less  ever  since,  a  short  history  of  his  estab- 
lishment may  not  be  out  of  place.  In  manners,  aj)x>earance, 
etc.,  Mr.  Gordon  is  a  veritable  Chesterfield.    He  is  a  success- 

17 


252  LIFE   WITH   THE  TROTTERS. 

fill  business  man,  an  excellent  judge  of  Iniman  nature,  a 
lover  of  a  good  horse,  and  a  true  friend.  I  can  not  now  recall 
any  man  who  hns  been  more  successful  on  the  trotting  turf 
for  the  time  he  has  been  connected  with  it  than  Mr.  Gordon. 
One  of  the  first  horses  he  bought  for  the  turf  was  Clingstone, 
who  has  always  been  a  star  jperformer  and  one  that  Mr. 
Gordon  has  hadagreatdealof  enjoyment  and  comfort  with. 
Not  only  has  he  had  the  i^leasure  of  seeing  him  win  some 
grand  battles  on  the  turf,  but  has  also  enjoyed  many  a  ride 
behind  him.  Clemmie  G.,  another  one  of  his  early  pur- 
chases, acquired  a  record  of  2:1 5|,  and  proved  herself  a  cam- 
paigner of  the  first  w^ater.  In  her  loss  by  death,  not  only 
Mr.  Gordon  but  the  breeding  x^ublic,  I  think,  met  with  a 
serious  loss.  Clemmie  G.,  being  out  of  a  mare  that  had 
p)roduced  six  with  records  better  than  2:30,  and  noted  for 
her  good  disposition  and  constitutional  soundness,  must 
have,  if  mated  with  some  first-class  stallion,  produced  results 
that  the  world  would  have  been  proud  of.  Guy,  the  star  jDer- 
formerof  this  year,  and  for  whom  Mr.  Gordon  paid  $10,000 
as  a  colt,  not  only  proved  his  good  judgment  but  also  his 
willingness  to  pay  for  horses.  Guy  is  the  only  horse  that  ever 
I  saw  that  could  trot  a  mile  better  than  2:20  driven  with- 
out boots  or  shoes  of  any  kind.  He  also  has  the  distinction 
which  no  other  horse  occupies  of  having  made  a  record  of 
2:12  in  one  season,  having  started  ineligible  for  the  three- 
minute  class.  In  Mambrino  Sparkle  Mr.  Gordon  has  a  mare 
that  has  proven  her  right  to  be  called  a  race-horse  in  every 
particular,  and  I  am  anxious  to  see  what  the  result  will  be 
if  she  is  used  for  breeding  i^urposes. 

Mr.  Gordon  has  also  taken  more  than  a  passing  interest  in 
the  interesting  subject  of  breeding  horses.  He  has  invested 
in  this  enterprise,  animals  and  other  property  that,  I  should 
think,  valued  at  low  estimate,  would  be  worth  $200,000.  His 
farm,  called  Gordon  Glen,  is  a  picturesqufe  spot  just  outside 
of  the  city  limits  of  Cleveland  on  St.  Clair  street,  and  runs 
back  to  the  Lake  Shore  Railroad.  As  a  gentleman's  estab- 
lishment it  is  the  most  complete  I  have  ever  seen,  having 


LIFE   WITH   THE   TROTTERS.  253 

plenty  of  good  water,  is  well  fenced,  nicely  divided  into 
paddocks  and  pastures  suitable  for  stallions,  brood-mares, 
fillies  and  colts,  the  best  of  stabling,  a  three-quarter  mile 
working  track,  drained  in  such  a  manner  that  it  is  safe  and 
pleasant  to  use  at  all  times  of  the  year;  an  eighth  of  a  mile 
covered  track  where  in  disagreeable  weather  the  horses  may 
take  their  regular  exercise, — in  fact  everything  in  the  way 
of  convenience  and  comfort  for  man  and  beast  that  money 
could  buy  or  brain  invent  are  to  be  found  there.  Amongst 
Mr.  Gordon's  brood  mares  the  first  by  right  of  merit  is 
Gretchen,  she  having  i^roduced  Clingstone,  2:14.  Largesse 
has  a  record  of  2:25.  Leontine  has  a  record  2:23|^  over  a  half- 
mile  track,  and  her  first  foal,  when  eighteen  months  of  age, 
brought  $2,500,  at  a  public  sale.  She  now  has  a  handsome 
colt  by  an  own  brother  to  Clingstone.  All  the  most  fashion- 
able and  valuable  strains  of  breeding  are  found  represented 
on  the  Gordon  farm  by  one  or  more  animals  that  are  known 
to  be  the  best  that  could  be  bought. 

In  the  stallion  line  Mr.  Gordon  has  Rysdyk,  the  sire  of 
Clingstone,  and  a  number  of  others  with  records  better  than 
2:30.  He  also  has  what  is  to  my  mind  one  of  the  most 
promising  horses  in  this  country,  Clingstone  II,  an  own 
brother  to  Clingstone.  In  color,  formation,  etc.,  this  young 
horse  resembles  his  illustrious  relation  and  has  the  proud 
distinction  of  being,  after  Lord  Russell,  the  brother  of 
Maud  S.,  full  brother  to  the  fastest  horse  in  the  land.  His 
education  as  a  trotter  has  never  been  attempted,  he  having 
shown  enough  in  the  waj^  of  speed  to  entitle  him  to  be  bred 
to  some  of  the  best  mares  that  Mr.  Gordon  has.  His  first 
crop  of  colts,  numbering  less  than  half  a  dozen,  contains 
one  or  two  that  bid  fair  to  be  great  performers  on  the  turf. 

Writing  of  breeding  takes  me  back  to  my  boyhood  days. 
I  had  for  a  chum .  and  companion  a  good  old  soul  of  the 
name  of  John  Lindley,  a  man  whose  highest  ambition  in 
life  wns  to  shine  as  the  owner  of  the  best  game  chickens, 
and  all  the  time  that  he  could  spare  from  his  daily  labor 
was  spent  in  the  care  and  breeding  of  his  favorite  fowl.  One 


254  LIFE  WITH   THE   TEOTTEES. 

invariable  rule  lie  had  was  that  when  he  found  a  chicken 
that  was  an  extraordinary  fighter  he  always  bred  the  own 
brother,  and  never  the  chicken  himself,  and  in  explanation 
told  me  he  was  sure  that  when  a  chicken  had  gone  through 
a  severe  i:)rocess  of  training  and  then  had  the  strain  of  a 
severe  battle  with  the  steels  it  would  leave  his  whole  system 
in  a  weakened  condition  and  he  would  not  be  as  liable  to 
transmit  to  his  descendants  the  qualities  necessary  to  make 
them  successful  as  would  an  own  brother  to  him  that  had 
not  gone  through  such  a  severe  j)reparation.  In  talking 
with  Colonel  West  about  Dictator  before  that  horse  had  made 
his  reputation,  I  told  him  what  my  friend  had  said.  It 
seemed  to  strike  him  very  forcibly,  and  as  I  was  always  a 
great  admirer  of  Dexter  I  told  the  Colonel  that  I  considered 
him  the  greatest  race-horse  I  had  ever  ^een  and  gave  him 
my  reasons  for  thinking  so,  which  were  that  Dexter  had 
beaten  every  horse  of  his  day  every  race  that  horses  had 
trotted  from  one  to  three  miles,  in  harness,  to  wagon,  under 
saddle.  He  had  also  beaten  every  other  horse's  time,  and 
long  before  we  had  the  developments  in  the  way  of  tracks, 
harness,  sulkies,  boots,  etc.,  that  we  now  have,  and  in  the 
hands  of  a  mere  boy,  Budd  Doble,  showed  his  ability  .to 
trot  a  mile  in  2:15  in  public.  Taking  into  consideration  all 
those  facts.  Dexter  was  certainly  a  wonderful  horse.  Dicta- 
tor, I  think,  is  a  good  example  of  the  success  of  the  theory 
my  old  friend  claimed  was  the  proper  one.  If  this  is  so 
Clingstone  II  must  certainly  be  a  success  in  the  stud,  he 
being  an  own  brother  to  a  horse  that  has  proved  by  j)ublic 
performance  that  he  is  entitled  to  be  called  first  class  in  any 
com^Dany.  Mr.  Gordon  has  always  shown  the  greatest  con- 
fidence in  Clingstone' s  ability.  Having  made  races  for  him 
at  different  times  when,  from  want  of  condition  and  other 
things  he  had  him  overmatched,  Clingstone  has  always 
repaid  his  confidence  by  winning  when  it  looked  like  a 
forlorn  hope.  As  an  employer  Mr.  Gordon  is  kind  and  just. 
In  some  of  what  I  consider  the  star  performances  of  my 
life  I  have  been  in  connection  with  his  stable.    Whatever 


LIFE   WITH   THE   TROTTEES.  255 

doubts  the  public  may  have  had  regarding  my  honesty  and 
ability  I  think  Mr.  Gordon  never  (shared,  as  he  always 
seemed  willing  to  trust  me  implicitly  with  his  horses  in 
every  way.  I  do  not  wish  by  this  to  be  understood  as  lind- 
ing  any  fault  with  the  public  in  their  treatment  of  myself, 
as  I  think  it  has  always  been  as  good  or  better  than  I 
deserved.  Not  only  has  the  public  treated  me  well  but 
with  very  few  exceptions  my  employers  have  been  the 
kindest  friends  to  me  a  man  ever  had. 

It  has  always  seemed  to  me  that  members  of  the  horse 
family  have  more  peculiarities  of  habits,  formation,  disposi- 
tion, etc.,  than  there  is  in  the  human  family.  Take,  for 
instance,  the  trotting  family  among  horses,  and  the  most  of 
them  that  are  bred  now  trace  their  pedigree  back  through 
«ome  of  the  numerous  channels  to  Rysdyk's  Hambletonian. 
Each  family  seem  to  have  many  things  about  them  distinctly 
their  own,  which  always  aj)pears  to  me  rather  a  strange 
thing,  seeing  that  they  all  come  from  one  fountain  head,  and 
I  have  never  been  able  to  find  a  satisfactory  reason  for  this. 
We  see  a  great  many  different  drivers  that  seem  to  have 
made  their  rej)utation  with  some  particular  family.  For 
instance,  Crit  Davis,  one  of  the  best  known  and  favorably 
thought  of  reinsmen  in  this  country,  while  he  has  been 
more  than  ordinarily  successful  with  different  families  of 
horses,  has  made  his  great  reputation  in  connection  with  the 
Hed  Wilkes  family,  he  having  given  Prince  Wilkes,  one  of 
tlie  star  performers  of  1888,  his  record  of  2:14f.  Prince 
Wilkes  has  fought  his  way  to  the  front  in  trotting  circles 
purely  by  his  own  merits.  His  owner,  a  sportsman  of  the  old 
school,  not  wishing  any,  particularly  newspaper,  notoriety 
in  regard  to  him,  has  never  had  his  horse  "boomed,"  as  has 
so  often  been  done  with  inferior  animals.  Mr.  George  A. 
Singerly  is  a  great  admirer  of  the  horse,  he  having  owned, 
driven  and  bred  trotters  long  before  it  was  considered  highly 
fashionable  for  a  gentleman  to  do  so,  and  in  my  younger  days 
I  remember  of  often  having  seen  him  riding  trotters  to  sad- 
dle on  some  of  the  tracks  about  Philadelj)hia,  and  he  was 


256  LIFE   Yv'ITII   THE   TEOTTERS. 

always  conceded  to  be  the  best  amateur  rider  in  the  country, 
and  not  averse  to  taking  a  shy  at  the  professionals,  as  is  shown 
by  his  having  ridden  the  bay  gelding  McLeod  to  his  best  rec- 
ord, 2:19|,  in  jiublic,  there  being  only  two  horses  in  the  world, 
Dexter  and  Great  Eastern,  with  faster  records  under  saddle. 

Mr.  Singerly  thinks  every  horse  ought  to  stand  on  his 
own  merits,  in  which  opinion  I  fully  concur.  I  have  noticed 
that  such  men  are  the  ones  who,  as  a  rule,  make  a  success  of 
what  they  undertake.  Mr.  Singerly,  or  "George"  as  all  his 
friends  call  him,  w^as  admired  by  Dan  Mace  as  much  as  any 
man  that  I  ever  knew.  Mace  once  bought  a  stable  of  run- 
ners and  the  first  good  horse  he  owned  he  called  George 
Singerly.  He  told  me  that  if  he  was  as  good  a  race-horse 
as  his  namesake  was  a  man  lie  would  get  the  money,  and 
seemed  more  delighted  on  account  of  this  when  the  horse 
commenced  to  win  than  on  account  of  the  pecuniary  bene- 
fit derived  from  the  animaF  s  success. 

Besides  Prince  Wilkes,  Mr.  Davis  drove  Repetition,  an- 
other son  of  Red  Wilkes,  three  years  old,  a  mile  in  2:21  in 
public  race.  He  also  won  with  him  a  race  against  a  field  of 
aged  horses  in  the  2:30  class,  and  showed  that  not  only  was 
he  a  youngster  of  plenty  of  speed,  but  more  determination 
and  the  other  qualities  that  it  takes  to  make  a  race-horse 
than  are  ordinarily  found  in  a  colt  of  that  age.  He  also  gave 
Phil  Thomx)son  a  record,  while  a  colt,  of  2:21  and  after- 
ward drove  him  to  his  record  of  2:16^,  and  performed  a  feat 
that  day  that  I  never  have  seen  any  other  man  do,  and  that 
was  to  win  two  races  in  one  day  and  drive  each  horse  to  his 
best  record  of  2:16|,  the  other  performer  on  this  occasion 
being  Maud  Messenger.  In  disposition,  Davis  always  seemed 
to  me  what  I  called  a  brave  man.  No  excitement  bothers 
him,  he  is  kind  to  his  horses  and  everything  about  him, 
always  seems  to  have  them  well  harnessed  and  booted  and 
properly  shod;  always  aims  to  be  a  fair  driver,  never  want- 
ing to  take  undue  advantage  of  other  j^eople,  and  in  driving 
in  a  race  I  have  always  noticed  that  he  is  what  I  call  a  rating- 
driver;  he  seems  to  know  about  how  well  his  horses  can  go 


LIFE   WITH  THE  TROTTEES.  257 

before  they  start  and  then  rates  them  along  to  accomplish 
the  mile  in  that  way.  I  think  that  a  man' s  character  often 
has  a  great  deal  to  do  with  the  horse, — that  is  if  you  have  a 
brave  man  it  will  help  to  make  a  brave  horse.  I  do  not  think 
I  ever  saw  Crit  driving  a  cowardly  horse;  they  all  seem  to 
have  lolenty  of  courage  and  determination.  I  have  repeatedly 
seen  Prince  Wilkes  out- trotted  in  a  manner  that  would  have 
been  very  discouraging  to  some  horses,  but  have  never  seen 
him  show  the  slightest  disposition  to  want  to  surrender  at 
any  time  or  place.  Crit  always  seemed  to  be  a  good  deal  of 
a  genius,  having  invented  a  number  of  boots,  bits,  etc.  One 
of  his  bits  I  hear  very  highly  sx)oken  of  as  being  a  good 
thing  to  break  a  horse  from  lugging  or  pulling.  If  Crit  says 
it  is  good  you  can  rest  assured  that  is  a  first-class  indorse- 
ment. 

The  Blue  Bull  family  does  not  cut  as  large  a  figure  in 
trotting  now  as  formerly.  Fifteen  years  ago  in  the  Western 
and  Southern  country  the  Blue  Bulls  were  a  very  large  fac- 
tion. They  were  owned,  driven  and  managed  by  a  family 
of  the  name  of  Wilson,  the  head  of  which  was  better  known 
as  ''  Blue  Bull  Wilson,"  he  having  got  the  name  from  his 
horse.  With  this  family  of  trotters  Samp  and  Dick  Wilson 
and  Gus  Glidden  seemed  to  be  more  successful  than  any 
other  men  I  know.  While  there  were  not  many  2:20  per- 
formers amongst  the  Blue  Bulls,  Gus  always  said  they  were 
a  good  poor  man's  horse.  Whatever  speed  they  had  could 
be  attained  with  but  very  little  training,  and  Gus's  idea  was 
to  earn  all  the  money  as  quickly  as  you  could  and  when  the 
horse  got  to  the  end  of  his  string  sell  him  and  get  a  new  one. 
And  there  must  have  been  some  method  in  his  plan,  as  Gus 
and  the  Wilson  family  both  have  real  estate  that  is  not  only 
good  to  look  at  but  brings  them  the  wherewith  for  all  their 
wants. 

One  or  two  of  the  best  things  I  have  ever  seen  Hickok  do 
in  the  way  of  training  and  driving  horses,  and  what  gave  me 
a  great  idea  of  his  being  a  trainer  and  driver,  w^as  in  races 
where  he  drove  some  member  of  the  Sultan  family.  Hickok, 


258  LIFE   Vv'ITH   THE   TKOTTEKS. 

I  think,  was  the  tirst  one  who  brought  any  of  the  Sul- 
tans east  of  the  Rocky  Mountains.  They  are,  strictly  speak- 
ing, a  family  of  Californians.  Sultan  himself  belonged  to 
Mr.  Rose  of  Los  Angeles,  a  gentleman  who  has  made  him- 
self a  reputation  as  a  very  successful  breeder,  he  having 
bred  and  owned  some  grand  horses.  I  think  Hickok  trained 
Eva,  a  three-year-old,  Avhen  she  won  one  of  the  grandest  bat- 
tles that  I  have  ever  seen  trotted,  and  that  gave  me  an  idea  of 
what  a  task  it  was  to  train  a  horse  and  prox)er]y  condition 
him  without  starting  him  in  races.  This  feat  he  accom- 
plished with  Eva,  and  hj  winning  the  race  referred  to  jDer- 
liaps  did  more  in  the  way  of  making  a  reputation  for  her 
sire  than  anything  that  had  ever  been  done  for  him  up  to 
that  time.  In  fact,  it  made  such  an  impression  on  some  of 
the  more  intelligent  l)reeders  of  this  country  that  they  made 
overtures  to  Mr.  Rose  for  some  of  his  stock  to  bring  East 
with  the  view  of  crossing  it  on  some  of  the  well-known 
strains  of  the  Eastern  country.  Among  the  gentlemen  who 
were  successful  in  acquiring  good  representatives  from  the 
family  was  Mr  Frank  S.  Waters  of  Chicago,  who  owns  a 
handsome  farm  near  Genoa  Junction,  Wis.,  he  having  bought 
the  bay  stallion  California,  foaled  in  1882,  who  has  the  right 
to  be  considered  first  class  in  every  respect,  he  not  only  being 
by  Sultan,  but  having  the  further  prestige  of  being  an  own 
brother  to  three  with  records  in  2:23  or  better.  His  dam  also 
j)roduced  Beautiful  Bells  with  a  record  of  2:28|^,  who  was 
the  dam  of  Bell  Boy  that  sold  as  a  colt  for  $50,000  and  also 
of  Hinda  Rose,  2:19^,  St.  Bel,  2:24^,  and  Palo  Alto  Belle, 
that  beat  2:30  last  season  as  a  two-year-old.  California 
himself  is  a  trotter  of  the  very  first  water.  Mr.  Waters  did 
not  stop  here,  but  went  further  and  acquired  Nutmeg,  who 
showed  himself  a  trotter  from  the  beginning  of  his  educa- 
tion and  with  but  very  little  training  made  a  record  of  2:25 
in  a  x^ublic  race.  He  is  by  Nutwood  and  in  that  way  traces 
back  to  the  best  in  the  world,  Maud  S.  Erelong,  another 
one  of  the  Waters  stallions,  is  by  Belmont,  the  sire  of 
Wedgewood,  2:19,  who  in  turn  got  Favonia,  2:15,  which  is 


LIFE   WITH  THE  TEOTTEKS.  259 

enougli  to  say  about  any  horse  m  a  country  where  i3eople 
go  to  see  trotting  races,  as  Favonia  and  Wedgewood  have, 
by  their  j)ublic  j)erformances  stamped  their  family  as  lirst 
class.  Sprague  Pilot,  the  third  stallion  at  the  Waters  farm, 
is  by  Governor  Sprague,  a  horse  who  years  ago  electrified 
the  world  not  only  by  his  extreme  speed  but  by  the  beauty 
of  his  gait  and  his  wonderful  intelligence  coupled  with  a 
formation  of  legs,  body,  etc.,  that  made  him  an  animal 
without  a  peer.  On  his  dam's  side  Sprague  Pilot  may  be 
said  to  trace  back  to  the  Irish  Kings,  his  first  dam  being  by 
Pilot  Temi)le,  a  horse  that  needs  no  eulogy  here,  as  his 
IDublic  record  has  done  all  that  for  him,  he  being  by  Pilot 
Jr.,  a  horse  whose  daughters  have  produced  two  of  the 
grandest  trotters  the  world  ever  saw,  and  back  of  all  that 
comes  the  dam  of  Flora  Temx^le,  the  first  horse  that  ever  beat 
2:20,  and  beyond  that  the  thoroughbred  cross  that  has 
proven  so  valuable  in  the  pedigree  of  a  first-class  trotter. 
This  shows  to  me  more  than  anything  else  what  a  wide 
interest  the  public  takes  in  the  trotting  horse.  When  a  gen- 
tleman who  has  devoted  his  time  entirely  to  business  and 
takes  up  the  breeding  of  horses  for  pleasure  or  otherwise 
can  select  with  such  excellent  judgment  a  good  combination 
of  the  best  strains  of  blood  of  performers,  he  certainly  must 
have  given  the  matter  a  great  deal  of  thought  and  study.  A 
man  might  hit  the  bulFs-eye  once  by  accident  but  he  will 
not  shoot  all  day  and  keep  hitting  it  unless  he  is  a  good  shot. 

Hickok  not  only  drove  Eva  to  a  world-wide  reputation, 
but  after  Stamboul,  a  son  of  Sultan,  had  been  beaten  some 
races  last  season  took  him  in  hand  and  very  soon  gave  hmi 
a  mark  of  2:14f. 

I  noticed  that  Hickok  in  training  members  of  the  Sultan 
family  worked  them  differently  from  any  other  horses  I 
ever  saw  him  handle.  They  always  seemed  to  have  their 
speed,  whether  in  condition  or  not.  Hickok  seemed  to  bend 
all  his  energies  to  conditioning  their  body,  legs,  wind,  etc., 
and  bringing  them  to  the  race  fit  in  that  manner.  He  often 
told  me  that  if  a  Sultan  could  trot  he  always  had  his  trot 


260  LIFE   WITH  THE   TROTTERS. 

with  him.  Have  them  thoroughly  conditioned,  he  said, 
and  they  always  prove  themselves  race- horses.  The  result 
of  my  observations  was  that  Hickok  was  right.  Speaking 
of  the  difference  in  horses,  there  is  also  a  very  great  differ- 
ence in  drivers.  Take  a  dozen  of  the  best  reinsmen,  and 
they  vary  greatly  in  disposition,  looks,  build  and  in  their 
general  system  of  driving  and  training  horses,  Hickok  I 
have  known  for  years.  His  forte,  I  think,  is  determination. 
In  training  a  horse  he  pays  more  attention  to  having  the 
horse  thoroughly  bitted  and  educating  the  mouth  than  any 
man  I  ever  saw.  After  Hickok  has  had  a  horse  a  reasonable 
length  of  time  you  will  see  one  that  makes  very  few  mis- 
takes of  any  kind  and  is  generally  very  easy  to  drive.  He 
has  had  some  ups  and  downs  in  his  life,  always  been  a  bold 
operator  on  the  turf  and  elsewhere,  is  a  shrewd  business 
man,  and  perhaps  has  owned  an  interest  in  more  first-class 
horses  than  any  other  man  in  this  country.  To  appreciate 
Hickok  you  have  to  know  him  well.  If  he  is  your  friend 
you  can  rest  assured  of  one  thing,  that  he  will  never  leave 
you  in  the  storm.  If  he  goes  in  out  of  the  wet  he  will  take 
you  with  him. 

The  Goldsmith  boys,  Johnny  and  Jim,  and  the  Volun- 
teer family  of  trotters  are  the  most  distinct  example  of 
breeding  that  I  ever  saw.  The  boys  came  honestly  by  their 
horsemanship  as  their  father  was  a  horseman  all  his  lifetime. 
The  old  gentleman  was  a  distinctive  character  in  his  way 
and  one  that  would  have  made  his  mark  in  any  walk  in  life 
in  which  he  might  have  been  j)laced.  When  I  first  knew 
him  thirty  years  ago  he  was  an  extremely  handsome  man, 
very  affable  in  manner,  always  dressed  well,  and  his  lan- 
guage at  all  times  was  good.  At  that  time  a  man  who 
owned  a  trotter  and  trotted  him  for  money  was  looked  upon, 
to  say  the  least,  with  a  little  suspicion.  That  is,  it  was  not 
considered  anything  to  be  iDarticularly  proud  of,  but  Mr. 
Goldsmith  like  the  intelligent  man  that  he  was,  could  see 
nothing  in  the  owning  of  a  first-class  horse  that  was  low  or 
degrading  and  so  expressed  himself.     He  lived  long  enough 


LIFE   WITH   THE  TKOTTERS.  261 

to  not  only  see  his  name  coupled  with  some  of  the  best 
horses  of  the  country  but  also  to  have  the  world  acknowl- 
edge that  his  theories  in  regard  to  them  were  right. 

The  Goldsmith  boys  had  advantages  that  seldom  fall  to 
the  lot  of  a  horse  driver.  They  had  the  benefit  of  their 
father's  experience,  also  an  ojiportunity  to  acquire  a  good 
business  education,  which  I  think  goes  a  long  way  toward 
making  a  man  successful  in  any  line,  —not  that  I  think  it  is 
necessary  in  order  to  be  a  good  driver,  for  a  man  to  have 
gone  to  college,  but  to  manage  a  valuable  stable  of  horses  and 
to  get  the  best  results  financially,  I  think  it  very  essential 
that  he  should  have  a  fair  education.  This  will  also  exj^and 
his  mind  and  teach  him  to  think,  which  is  absolutely 
necessary.  As  the  Goldsmith  boys  and  their  horses  have 
been  important  figures  on  the  trotting  turf  I  will  give  a 
sketch  of  them  as  they  appeared  to  me,  which  facts  I  have 
been  able  to  glean  from  close  observation,  as  some  of  the 
greatest  efforts  that  I  have  been  able  to  p)ut  forth  have  been 
made  in  a  struggle  to  keep  John  and  Jim  from  getting  my 
money  in  many  closely  contested  races. 

The  first  time  I  saw  John  Goldsmith  he  was  a  lad  of 
twelve  or  thirteen  years,  and  was  even  then  just  as  willing 
to  bet  you  he  could  name  the  winner  as  he  is  now.  If  he 
made  a  mistake  and  lost  his  money  he  stood  it  like  a  veteran. 
As  an  all-round  driver  and  a  shrewd  manager  under  any 
and  all  circumstances,  John  is  entitled  to  a  seat  in  the  front 
pew.  He  is  a  man  of  medium  size,  weighing  about  150  pounds. 
"Jimmy,"  as  the  boys  call  him,  differs  somewhat  in  his 
appearance  and  methods  from  John,  greatly  resembling  his 
father.  By  general  consent  I  believe  he  is  considered  the 
handsomest  and  best  dressed  man  connected  with  the  trot- 
ting turf.  If  Berry  Wall  had  Jimmy' s  personal  appearance 
and  good  taste  in  dress  he  would  still  be  the  "  King  of  the 
Dudes."  This  part  of  Jim's  character  extends  also  to  his 
business,  as  his  horses  are  well  harnessed,  well  booted,  have 
the  best  of  sulkies,  and  the  general  appearance  of  his  stable 
would  make  glad  the  heart  of  an  artist.     Whether  he  has 


262  LIFE  WITH   THE  TEOTTERS. 

the  ability  that  John  has  in  what  is  called  all-round  driving 
I  am  not  prepared  to  say,  but  any  horse  that  Jim  has  in  his 
stable  will  be  as  well  trained  and  driven  and  will  come  as 
near  performing  in  a  manner  to  get  him  the  money  as  any 
one  I  ever  saw.  His  public  record  I  think  bears  out  all  these 
statements. 

The  Volunteer  family  of  horses,  with  which  the  Gold- 
smiths made  their  rei^utation,  are  famous.  Mr.  Alden  Gold- 
smith bought  Volunteer  years  ago  when  the  horse  had  no 
reputation  himself  or  as  a  sire  of  trotters.  He  was  at  that 
time  one  of  the  most  stylish  and  finished  animals  I  ever  saw 
and  with  a  little  training  gave  promise  of  speed  of  a  high 
order.  The  one  trait  in  the  Volunteers  which  gave  them 
more  rejjutation  than  anything  else  was  their  extreme  game- 
ness,  their  ability  to  hang  on  until  every  other  horse  and 
man  had  become  tired,  which  has  been  proven,  not  only  by 
their  races  of  mile  heats,  three  in  five,  but  also  by  their  grand 
performances  in  longer  races,  notably  Huntress'  three-mile 
race  where  she  beat  the  record  of  the  world.  I  have  never 
seen  a  Volunteer  act,  under  anything  like  favorable  circum- 
stances, as  though  he  would  show  the  white  feather.  When- 
ever I  see  a  horse's  i)edigree  with  a  Volunteer  cross  in  it  I 
consider  it  a  point  in  favor  of  the  pedigree. 

The  first  time  I  saw  Protection,  the  only  thing  about  him 
that  I  in  the  least  admired  was  his  pedigree.  When  they 
informed  me  that  he  was  by  a  well-bred  son  of  Volunteer 
and  that  his  dam  was  said  to  be  a  thoroughbred  mare  I  took 
some  interest  in  him.  On  further  investigation  I  found  that 
he  could  trot  a  quarter  in  thirty-five  seconds.  After  that  he 
showed  a  disposition  to  give  it  uj),  as  it  were,  was  liable  to 
break,  act  badly,  and  get  distanced,  the  direct  opposite  of 
what  I  expected  to  see  in  a  Volunteer.  I  kept  an  eye  on  Pro- 
tection and  in  two  j^ears  from  the  first  time  I  saw  him  induced 
a  friend  of  mine  to  buy  him  for  $1,500,  with  the  privilege  of 
training  and  trotting  him  whenever  I  wanted  to.  The  fol- 
lowing spring  I  sent  for  the  horse,  and,  thinking  that  it  may 
be  of  some  interest  to  my  readers,  will  give  them  a  general 


LIFE   WITH  THE   TROTTERS.  263 

idea  of  how  I  trained  and  drove  liim.  In  making  a  stndy 
of  Protection  the  first  few  weeks  he  was  in  my  hands  I  found 
him  what  I  considered  to  be  an  overly  large  horse  to  be  a 
successful  campaigner,  and  a  perfect  glutton  to  eat ;  having 
in  the  stable  more  the  manner  of  an  ox  than  a  race-horse. 
His  feet  were  very  large;  long  at  the  toes,  and  with  a  low 
heel  both  in  front  and  behind.  In  gait  he  went  very  low  to 
the  ground,  and  in  jogging  him  on  the  road  he  would  contin- 
ually stub  his  toes  and  knuckle  over  both  in  front  and  behind. 
He  had  always  been  driven  with  a  heavy  shoe  and  toe- weight. 
I  had  seen  him  get  a  good  deal  of  what  I  call  rough  training, 
and  as  that  treatment  had  not  made  him  a  race-horse  I  con- 
cluded to  try  the  opposite  plan.  I  had  at  this  time  a  young 
friend  of  the  name  of  Harry  Devereux,  and  for  an  amateur 
I  considered  him  to  have  as  man j^  good  ideas  about  training 
as  anyone  I  knew  of.  I  knew  Harry  had  seen  a  great  deal 
of  Protection  and  without  his  suspecting  what  I  was  really 
doing  I  interviewed  him  on  the  subject,  got  all  the  points 
from  him  that  I  could  as  to  who  had  driven  the  horse,  what 
kind  of  Avork  they  had  given  him,  and  how  well  he  had  ever 
seen  him  go,  and  when  he  told  me  that  he  had  seen  his 
owner,  Mr.  William  Fasig,  whose  rei)utation  as  a  horse 
driver  is  not  quite  so  good  as  it  is  as  secretary  of  a  race- 
track, drive  Protection  to  a  road  wagon  a  full  mile  in  2 :26|, 
I  was  sure  he  would  certainly  go  in  2:20  or  better  in  harness 
and  so  told  Harry.  He  did  not  agree  with  me  on  this  j)oint, 
but  nevertheless  told  me  that  he  Avould  be  willing  to  help  me 
train  to  the  best  of  his  ability,  which  he  did  and  I  was  af- 
terward glad  to  thank  him  for  his  services.  The  first  order 
in  connection  with  Protection's  training  was  to  put  him  on 
a  light  diet,  about  one  half  the  feed  that  he  had  been  in  the 
habit  of  having.  I  had  his  shoes  taken  oif  all  around  and 
found  his  feet  in  rather  a  neglected  condition.  One  of  them 
had  a  slight  quarter  crack  and  the  rest  were  more  or  less 
dry  and  hard.  He  had  at  one  time  suffered  severely  from 
the  distemper,  and  I  think  that,  as  is  often  the  case,  it  had 
settled  in  his  feet,  and  had  it  been  winter,  I  would  have  treated 


264  LIFE   WITH   THE   TROTTEES. 

them  differently.  I  would  liave  in  tliat  case  j)oulticed  them 
thoroughly  and  blistered  them  mildly  and  started  a  new 
growth  before  I  started  to  train  him.  As  it  was  I  had  his 
feet  shortened  up  moderately,  had  a  pair  of  bar  shoes  made 
weighing  fifteen  ounces,  had  him  shod  with  leather  and 
sponges,  shortened  his  feet  behind  all  I  could,  and  put  a 
ten-ounce  shoe  on  him  which  would  ordinarily  be  out  of 
proportion.  But  in  this  instance  I  wanted  to  change  the 
horse's  gait  behind  and  took  this  way  of  doing  it. 

In  training  Protection,  I  gave  him  short,  sharp  work,  got 
the  best  boy  I  could  find  to  groom  him,  and  began  by  giving 
him  moderate  working  miles  and  brushing  him  at  the  finish, 
always  well  within  himself.  As  soon  as  he  was  in  condition 
to  go  along  at  about  a 2:30  gait  I  got  Devereux  to  drive  him 
and  I  worked  some  horse  with  him,  being  careful  all  the 
time  to  give  Protection  the  best  of  it,  never  allowing  the 
other  horse  to  out-trot  him  so  as  to  discourage  him.  I  liked 
him  from  the  first  day  I  drove  him  and  was  sure  he  would 
go  in  2:20  or  better,  but  never  found  anyone  else  who  shared 
my  belief,  and  when  I  told  the  boys  that  there  would  be 
some  day  they  would  want  Protection,  they  replied  "All 
right,  we  will  take  our  chances."  I  never  had  a  horse  in 
my  stable  that  trained  easier  or  gave  me  less  trouble  than  he 
did.  The  only  thing  about  him  that  seemed  to  need  any 
extra  attention  were  his  feet,  which  I  kej^t  thoroughly  joonl- 
ticed,  and  stood  him  in  warm  water  every  day.  AYlien  the 
spring  meetings  opened  in  Indiana,  I  entered  Protection  in 
his  class  and  in  his  first  race  I  liked  him  better  than  I  ex- 
pected to.  The  excitement  of  the  race,  etc.,  seemed  to  be 
just  what  he  wanted.  As  I  had  not  done  anything  in  the 
way  of  keying  him  to  a  high  rate  of  speed,  and  knowing 
that  I  had  no  chance  to  win  the  race,  I  contented  myself 
with  second  XDOsition  and  as  the  race  was  decided  in  three 
heats  it  was  nothing  but  a  good  day's  work  for  him.  I  trot- 
ted him  every  week  from  there  until  the  grand  circuit  oj^ened 
and  at  Buffalo  I  started  him  for  the  first  time  in  the  big 
ring.     And  regardless  of  all  that  I  had  told  the  boys  about 


LIFE   WITH   THE  TROTTEKS.  265 

his  wonderful  speed  and  race-liorse  qualities  the  book-mak- 
ers were  willing  to  bet  a  hnndred  dollars  to  five  that  he 
would  not  win  the  first  heat.  But  Protection  came  home 
first  in  about  2:20  and  there  were  a  few  people  at  the  track 
who  did  not  get  their  breath  again  until  the  cold  weather 
set  in.  He  was  beaten  the  race,  however,  having  to  content 
himself  with  fourth  money. 

The  following  week,  at  Rochester,  he  bettered  his  posi- 
tion a  little  by  capturing  a  heat  in  about  2:20  and  winning 
second  money.  Again  the  book-makers  got  hurt  by  betting 
they  could  tell  which  heat  he  w^ould  win.  At  Utica  he  trot- 
ted a  well-contested  race,  winning  two  heats,  but  was  again 
beaten.  At  Albany  he  won  the  third  and  fourth  heats  in 
his  race  and  at  the  finish  of  the  race  stood  second.  Bj^this 
time  everyone  said  he  would  do  very  well  for  a  heat  or  two, 
but  was  no  good  after  that.  I  made  up  my  mind  that  there 
would  be  a  day  when  he  would  be  able  to  win  three  heats. 
My  opinion  was  correct,  for  the  following  week  at  Hartford 
he  won  over  a  good  field  with  i^lenty  of  betting  and  acquired 
a  record  of  2:19^. 

But  what  I  consider  the  star  performance  of  Protection's 
life  was  when  he  beat  J.  B.  Richardson  a  race  over  the  Point 
Breeze  track  under  unfavorable  circumstances  where  it  took 
five  lieats  to  decide  it,  they  being  the  only  contenders.  The 
winning  of  this  race  caused  me  some  satisfaction  as  it  proved 
what  I  had  said  of  Protection — that  he  was  a  race-horse,  and 
it  gave  me  an  opportunity  to  take  the  scalp  of  a  gentleman 
w^hose  hair  I  wanted.  There  was  no  i^ool-selling,  but  a  good 
deal  of  old-fashioned  betting  out  of  hand  indulged  in,  and 
Dr.  Frost,  Protection' s  owner,  and  wdio  they  say  is  the  best 
dentist  in  the  world,  and  whom  I  know  to  be  a  first-class 
sport,  w^as  tem^oted  to  lay  a  little  money  on  him  at  the  odds, 
which  were  four  to  one.  Richardson  had  beaten  Protection 
every  race  they  ever  came  together,  was  known  to  be  fast  and 
a  good  actor,  and  proven  himself  one  of  the  gamest  Wilkes 
horses  I  ever  saw.  Tliere  was  no  laying  up  in  the  first 
heat  this  time.     Jimmy  Goldsmith  had  the  mount  behind 


266  LIFE  WITH  THE  TROTTEES. 

Richardson  and  as  the  other  horses  were  not  supiDosed  ta 
have  a  chance  in  the  race,  the  fight  started  in  between  the 
two.  In  the  first  seven-eighths  of  the  mile  in  the  first  heat, 
Protection  and  Richardson  went  like  a  team.  Then  Richard- 
son broke  and  Protection  beat  him  to  the  wire  in  about  2:21. 
The  second  heat  was  almost  identical  with  the  first.  They 
trotted  yoked  all  the  w:iy  to  the  finish  where  Richardson 
again  broke  and  Protection  won  again  in  2:20J,  which,  taking 
into  consideration  the  day  and  the  track,  I  consider  the  l)est 
mile  he  ever  trotted. 

After  this  heat  Protection  showed  a  good  deal  of  dis- 
tress and  we  decided  that  the  best  thing  to  do  was  to  lay 
him  UX3,  regardless  of  whether  there  was  any  other  horse  to 
drive  Richardson  out  or  not.  Richardson  won  the  third 
and  fourth  heats  easily  in  about  2:24.  Most  of  the  people 
then  left  the  track,  thinking  the  race  was  over,  and  those 
who  staid  got  a  genuine  surprise  i)arty.  By  this  time 
Protection  seemed  to  have  recovered  his  breath,  and  it 
looked  to  me  as  if  we  had  a  fighting  chance  to  win.  Hav- 
ing trotted  all  these  races  with  J.  B.  Richardson,  I  had 
found  out  what  I  thought  was  his  weak  x^oint,  and  that  was 
that  if  a  horse  took  him  by  the  head  and  hung  right  on  to 
him,  he  was  almost  sure  to  make  a  break,  in  fact  wanted  to 
keep  breaking  all  the  time.  I  had  no  idea  of  beating  him 
to  the  Avire,  but  thought  I  might  make  him  run  enough  so 
the  judges  would  take  the  heat  awa}"  and  give  it  to  me. 
When  the  word  was  given  in  the  fifth  heat  Richardson  led 
to  the  quarter  pole,  Protection  a  good  second.  In  the  drive 
down  the  back  side  Richardson  broke  and  made  a  good  run, 
and  by  the  time  Jim  had  him  trotting  again  I  had  the  pole. 
I  then  pulled  back  and  let  Jim  come  up  to  my  wheel  and 
we  raced  in  that  manner  to  the  three-quarter  pole,  where 
Richardson  indulged  in  another  short  break  and  landed  on 
a  trot  at  Protection's  head.  From  there  to  the  distance 
stand  neither  horse  seemed  to  have  any  advantage,  both 
staying  on  their  feet  and  trotting  their  level  best.  Here 
Richardson  indula'ed  in  another  break  and  we  finished  at 


LIFK   WITH   THE   TllOTTKIlS.  267 

tlie  wire  so  close  that  I  luirdly  think  anyone  could  tell 
which  horse  was  first.  Here  Jimmy  put  me  in  mind  of  his 
illustrious  namesake,  James  G.  Blaine,  because  he  claimed 
everything  and  conceded  nothing.  He  told  the  j  udges  that 
I  had  scared  his  horse  off  his  feet,  carried  him  wide  on  i\ie 
turns,  and  that  my  conduct  had  been  unbecoming  a  gentle- 
man and  a  scholar,  and  his  friends  who  were  many,  and 
who  backed  the  horse,  thought  the  judges  were  bound  to 
decide  the  heat  in  favor  of  Richardson  whether  or  no.  I 
thought  at  the  time  and  still  believe  that  Protection  was 
entitled  to  the  heat  and  race.  He  had  trotted  five  heats 
without  making  a  break,  over  a  rough  heavy  track  and 
there  was  no  heat  that  Richardson  had  not  indulged  in 
a  good. deal  of  breaking.  After  the  crowd  had  shouted 
themselves  hoarse  I  got  a  chance  to  make  a  statement  to 
the  judges  and  they  awarded  the  heat  and  race  to  Protec- 
tion. Some  of  the  critics  said  that  my  talk  got  the  race, 
but  if  the  money  is  hung  up  for  trotting  horses  I  don't  see 
why  they  should  not  all  be  compelled  to  go  on  a  trot  if 
they  expect  to  win  it.  I  don't  think  any  horse  should  be 
allowed  to  run  in  a  heat  under  any  circumstances,  unless  it 
is  a  running  race.  In  all  the  last  races  that  I  drove  Pro- 
tection in  I  had  him  shod  with  a  liglit  shoe,  a  two-ounce 
toe -weight,  leather  and  sponge,  and  had  him  calked  about  the 
same  as  you  wohld  for  the  road.  He  liad  a  low  heel  and  a 
big  frog  and  I  found  that  the  hard  track  seemed  to  hurt 
him.  I  put't'ie  calks  on  to  break  the  concussion,  and  he 
w^ent  better.  All  through  this  cam2:)aign  Protection  acted 
very  steady,  and  contrary  to  what  everyone  said  about 
him,  proved  himself  much  better  than  an  empty  stall  and 
gave  me  renewed  faith  in  the  Volunteer  blood. 

William  Darling  dates  his  connection  with  the  turf  many 
years  back,  from  the  same  school  with  Peter  Johnston,  Ed 
Brown,  Jimmy  Boyle  and  others  of  that  class.  In  his 
younger  days  Darling  did  not  have  the  same  opi^ortu- 
nity  to  make  trotters  that  trainers  do  in  these  times  omng 

to  the  great  difference  in  raw  material,  but  that  Darling 
*  18  '  ° 


268  LIFE   WITH   THE   TROTTEES. 

was  a  horse  trainer  and  driver  is  proven  by  the  success  he 
had  with  a  great  number  of  horses.  At  the  present  writing 
lie  is  trainer  and  manager  of  Mr.  Mortimer  McRoberts' 
Rock  River  stock  farm  at  Dixon,  Ills.,  the  only  one  in  the 
country  I  believe  devoted  entirely  to  the  breeding  and  rais- 
ing of  gentlemen's  road-horses. 

Jack  Haverly,  one  of  the  best-known  men  in  this  country, 
whose  large  theatrical  and  other  amusement  interests  have 
made  him  a  iiublic  character  for  years,  was  always  a  lover 
of  the  turf,  owned  some  good  horses,  and  when  they  trotted 
was  willing  to  back  them  as  long  as  there  was  anyone  to  bet 
against  him.  It  may  be  truly  said  that  he  is  the  only  Jack 
Haverly.  I  have  known  him  from  my  schoolboy  days,  and 
have  seen  him  without  a  dollar  in  the  world,  and  at  other 
times  with  a  fortune  at  his  command.  Whether  broke  or 
wealthy  his  manners  and  treatment  of  other  people  were  the 
same.  The  boy  who  blacked  his  boots  in  the  street  was 
treated  by  him  with  the  same  courteousness  and  considera- 
tion that  a  king  w^ould  receive  at  his  hands.  Jack  Haverly 
may  die  poor  or  may  die  rich,  but  in  either  case  he  will  leave 
a  monument  behind  him  in  the  number  and  love  of  his 
friends  that  I  would  rather  have  over  my  grave  than  a  x>iUar 
of  granite  that  would  reach  to  the  clouds. 

"Con''  SuUivan,  also  one  of  the  okl  guard,  was  con- 
nected with  the  turf  when  Chicago  was  a  village,  and  although 
his  time  is  now  entirely  taken  iq)  with  his  large  breeding 
interests,  he  enjoys  a  horse-race  as  well  as  ever.  He  made 
his  bow  to  the  public  in  connection  with  Joseph  Cairn  Simp- 
son, a  man  whose  connection  with  the  turf  has  been  one  of 
long  years  and  great  activity;  he  having  bred,  owned,  trained 
and  driven  trotting  horses  all  his  life.  He  also  owned  some 
of  the  best  thoroughbred  race-horses  in  this  country,  and 
with  all  that  found  time  to  edit  a  newspaper  devoted  to  the 
turf  and  its  interests,  has  written  a  number  of  very  valuable 
works  on  the  same  subject,  and  if  the  Society  for  the  Pre- 
vention of  Cruelty  to  Animals  wants  to  do  a  humane  act  to 
horses,  they  should  send  a  copy  of  his  book  entitled  ' '  Tips 


LIFE   WITH   THE   TROTTERS.  269 

and  Toe  Weights"  to  every  man  who  owns  a  horse  in  this 
country.  No  man  that  owns  a  horse  or  takes  an  interest  in 
one,  should  be  without  this  book.  I  o\vn  one,  and  study 
it  every  time  I  liave  a  chance  and  always  learn  something 
new. 

Speaking  of  newspaper  men,  brings  to  my  mind  a  few 
other  writers  who  have  taken  a  prominent  part  on  the  turf, 
H.  D.  McKinney  who  writes  over  the  name  of  '"Mambrino," 
has  given  to  the  reading  public  a  great  many  jjleasant  and 
valuable  newspai)er  articles;  has  been  a  trainer  and  driver 
and  owner,  has  invented  several  useful  and  practical  appli- 
ances for  trotting  horses;  and  one,  his  jDatent  check-hook,  is 
.  the  best  thing  of  the  kind  I  ever  saw. 

M,  T.  Grattan  has  jDroved  himself  by  his  works  a  capa- 
ble breeder,  a  good  trainer  and  driver,  and  one  of  the  best 
Judges  I  ever  saw  in  the  stand,  and  as  a  writer  I  think  if  he 
had  taken  to  romance  and  described  a  scene  between  some 
young  lady  and  her  sweetheart  as  well  as  he  did  the  race 
between  Edwin  Thorne  and  Clingstone,  his  book  would  have 
had  a  greater  sale  than  "The  Quick  or  the  Dead." 

The  next  man,  E.  C.  Walker,  who  writes  over  the  name 
of  "Veritas"  and  has  been  connected  for  a  long  time  with 
the  Chicago  Horseman,  has  also  served  his  time  as  a  breeder, 
owner,  trainer  and  driver  of  trotting  horses,  and  with  a  suc- 
cess that  any  man  might  be  j)i'oud  of.  As  a  writer  on  all 
subjects  connected  with  the  horse  he  has  made  himself  a 
trade-mark  that  many  try  to  imitate,  but  none  excel.  There 
is  one  thing  in  connection  with  his  writings  that  I  never  saw 
but  one  other  man  who  could  do  anything  like  as  well,  and 
that  is,  the  fact  that  he  can  sit  down  in  a  chatty  way  and 
without  pen  or  paper  interview  you  on  any  subject  in  the 
world  and  write  it  u}),  and  have  his  article  contain  the  exact 
language  and  meaning  that  you  had  used  with  him  in  your 
conversation.  This  certainly  must  be  a  gift,  as  I  ne^er  saw 
but  one  or  two  men  who  could  do  it  with  anything  like  ac- 
curacy. 

The  newspaper  business  must  be  bred  in  the  Walker 


270  LIFE  Av rrii  the  trotters. 

family  as  E.  C.  Walker  lias  a  brother  James,  that  has  the 
same  qualities  as  a  newspaper  man,  and  also  the  love  of  the 
horse  in  his  character,  he  being  an  owner  and  breeder  at 
this  time. 

Some  of  the  other  noted  cliaracters  that  I  have  met  on 
the  turf  are  the  pool-sellers  and  book-makers.  Ira  Bride,  of 
the  firm  of  Bride  &  Armstrong  is  one  of  the  best  known  men 
in  the  business,  he  having  had  the  pool-selling  at  different 
times  on  all  the  prominent  tracks  in  this  countr3^  He  has 
the  dignity  of  a  bank  j)resident  and  this,  coupled  with  his 
handsome  aj)pearan(ie  and  gentlemanly  manners,  makes  him 
a  very  popular  man. 

Frank  Herdic  is  a  native  of  Pennsylvania  and  as  a  talker, 
pool-seller,  and  a  violin  player,  he  cannot  be  excelled. 

Charley  Stiles  is  willing  to  talk  anybody  in  the  world  a 
race  of  mile  heats  three  and  five  and  is  just  as  willing  to  bet 
on  his  ability  there  as  he  is  to  guess  the  winner  in  a  horse- 
race. 

Ed  Morse"  a  Yankee  jjool-seller  is  a  very  steady  man 
about  fifty  years  of  age.  His  business  methods  are  first  class, 
his  friends  would  make  an  army,  and  he  would  like  to  find 
a  rule  so  that  every  man  who  buys  a  pool-ticket  might  get 
a  winner. 

In  the  West  the  pool-selling  on  trotting  tracks  has  of  late 
years  been  pretty  well  monopolized  by  George  Wild  and  Al 
Swearinger,  a  couple  of  young  men  who  are  about  as  well 
known  and  liked  as  any  in  their  line.  Wild  is  a  Britisher 
by  birth,  but  for  all  that  the  trotter  is  his  ideal  horse,  and 
if  it  were  a  choice  as  to  whether  he  should  see  the  Ej^som 
Derby  or  a  free-to-all  ]3acing-race  George  would  be  with  the 
side- wheelers  every  time. 

Jim  McCrea,  Herdic' s  partner,  deserves  more  than  a  pas- 
sing mention,  he  having  been  for  years  connected  with  pool- 
selling  and  perhaps  has  business  relations  in  that  way  w^ith 
more  men  than  anyone  else  in  the  business.  Jimmy  is  not  a 
sport  in  any  sense  of  the  term,  and  never  plunges,  no  matter 
how    good  the  tip.      The   j)Yice  of  a  barrel  of  fiour  laid 


LIFE   WITH   THE   TROTTERS.  271 

straight  and  a  ton  of  coal  for  a  place,  is  as  mncli  as  Jimmy 
cares  to  risk.  Jim  and  myself  claim  Cleve'and  for  our  home, 
and  in  the  winter  mornings  as  we  wait  for  our  butcher  to 
cut  off  our  steak  or  chops,  we  talk  over  the  prospects  for  the 
coming  year  and  wish  we  might  find  a  way  to  always  win 
when  we  bet. 

Another  character,  and  the  only  one  in  his  class,  is  Leni 
Ullman,  the  original  and  only  American  j^rogramme  seller. 
He  made  his  bow  to  the  x)ublic  as  an  owner  of  trotters.  He 
and  Herdic  at  this  time  own  the  celebrated  bay  gelding 
Clothesline,  but  after  one  campaign,  which  was  very  dis- 
astrous, Lem  wended  his  way  home  sitting  astride  of  Clothes- 
line and  looked  about  the  same  as  a  clothespin  on  a  clothes- 
line in  the  back  yard.  He,  I  believe,  is  tlie  inventor  of  pro- 
grammes on  the  trotting  turf,  and  while  he  comes  from  the 
race  of  X)eox3le  who  they  say  love  money,  Lem  likes  to  make 
it,  but  no  man  can  spend  it  more  freely  or  give  it  to  a  friend 
in  need  with  a  more  generous  hand.  After  the  busy  season 
is  over,  Lem  and  his  first  lieutenant  Master  Fred  Johnson, 
hie  themselves  to  some  beautiful  climate  and  there  live  in 
clover  until  the  bell  rings  again. 

Harry  Johnson  and  Johnny  Green  represent  the  French 
pool  interest  on  the  turf,  and  while  their  age  and  general 
appearance  are  very  much  different,  their  methods  are  about 
the  same. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

Other  drivers  who  have  made  a  name  in  connection  vpith  certain  families  of 
horses — Morrill  Higbee  and  the  Sprague  strain  of  blood — Frank  Van  Ness 
with  Harry  and  Rosaline  Wilkes — Jock  Bowen,  and  how  he  fooled  some 
people  who  imagined  that  he  could  not  drive  a  pacer  well — Horace  Brown 
comes  from  a  family  of  practical  horsemen — Billy  Weeks  an  excellent 
rider,  as  well  as  a  good  reinsman — Charles  Marvin  the  man  who  has  brought 
out  nearly  all  the  fast  sons  and  daughters  of  Electioneer — Some  facts  about 
Governor  Stanford's  venture  in  the  breeding  of  trotters — Pluck  has  a 
good  deal  more  to  do  with  success  than  luck — Governor  Stanford  in  some 
respects  like  General  Grant — A  colt  of  his  breeding  sold  for  $50,000. 

Another  man  who  made  his  mark  with  one  family  is 
Morrill  Higbee,  he  having  given  their  records  to  the  two 
fastest  rex^resentatives  in  the  Si)ragne  family.  Governor 
Sprague  as  a  five-year-old  obtained  a  record  of  2:20^  under 
Higbee's  management  and  sold  to  Mr.  J.  I.  Case  for  about 
$30,000.  A  few  years  later  he  gave  Kate  Sprague  her  best 
record,  2:18.  Morrill  is  a  genial  fellow,  looks  like  a  typical 
Westerner,  although  born  nearUtica,  N.Y. ;  and  has  j)lenty 
of  nerve,  as  I  think  Mr.  Yail,  ex-secretary  of  the  National 
Trotting  Association  could  probably  i)rove  if  necessary. 
Higbee  was  always  a  fortunate  man  on  the  turf,  having  sold 
several  other  high-priced  horses  besides  Governor  Sprague. 

To  Frank  Van  Ness  is  due  the  credit  of  giving  to  Harry 
Wilkes  the  fastest  record  obtained  by  any  horse  of  the 
numerous  Wilkes  family.  He  also  drove  Rosaline  Wilkes 
to  her  record,  which  is  the  next  best  one  in  the  Wilkes  fam- 
ily. Jock  Bowen  is  one  of  the  representative  Yankee  driv- 
ers of  this  country,  he  being  a  native  of  the  East.  Bowen 
has  been  successful  with  the  Knox  family,  Pilot  Knox  and 
Camors  bpth  having  received  their  education  at  his  hands. 

(272) 


LIFE   WITH   THE   TROTTERS.  273 

There  never  was  but  one  Jock  Bowen  and  there  will  never 
be  another.  He  has  x^robably  seen  as  many  years  of  active 
service  on  the  turf  as  any  man  in  the  business.  He  does  not 
care  to  call  the  whole  world  his  friends,  but  those  lie  likes 
lie  will  go  as  far  for  and  make  as  great  an  effort  to  serve  as 
anyone.  A  rather  amusing  instance  came  under  my  notice 
in  connection  with  Bowen  that  might  be  told  here.  A  i)arty 
from  the  West  went  down  to  Boston  to  show  the  Yankees 
liow  to  race  with  paceis.  The  judges,  not  liking  the  com- 
plexion of  affairs,  concluded  to  change  drivers.  They  sent 
for  one  of  the  owners,  told  him  they  thought  they  would  like 
to  put  Mr.  Bowen  behind  his  horse,  to  which  he  readily 
consented,  stating  that  nothing  would  please  him  better. 
The  judges  asked  Jock  to  take  the  seat.  He  declined,  and 
in  a  quiet  way  informed  the  owner  that  he  was  not  in  the 
habit  of  going  about  and  interfering  in  other  people' s  busi- 
ness. The  owner  insisted  that  Jock  drive  the  pacer  and  by 
all  means  to  win  with  him  if  he  could.  Jock  took  the  mount 
and  won  tlie  race,  and  all  his  friends  realized  well  on  it,  and, 
as  it  leaked  out  afterward,  the  owner  of  the  j)acer  lost  liis 
money,  having  bet  against  Jock  after  being  told  by  some- 
one that  Jock  had  never  driven  a  pacer  and  would  not  be 
able  to  win  with  this  one.  I  have  always  thought  that 
any  man  who  could  play  one  violin  well  would  be  apt  to 
make  some  music  with  almost  any  one.  I  think  the  same 
in  this  case.  You  find  a  man  who  can  drive  a  trotter  as 
well  as  Jock  Bowen,  and  he  won't  be  entirely  lost  when  he 
gets  up  behind  a  pacer. 

Horace  Brown  is  entitled  to  be  classed  with  the  free-for- 
all  drivers.  His  father  before  him  was  a  trotting-horse 
driver  of  rej^utation  and  a  man  of  ability.  Horace  drives  all 
classes  of  horses  well,  and  as  a  conditioner  has  always  been 
considered  first  class.  William  Weeks  is  also  entitled  to  be 
classed  with  the  old  brigade  as  he  has  been  a  horseman  from 
boyhood.  He  shines  i^articularly  in  the  saddle  and  when- 
ever Billy  rides  the  ladies  have  a  treat.  He  has  given  any 
number  of  horses  their  best  records  and  as  a  manaoer  in  the 


274  LIFE   YriTII   THE   TROTTERS. 

stable  lie  leads  them  all.  This  part  of  his  education  I  think 
he  learned  from  his  old  friend  Mr.  William  Yan  Cott,  who 
has  been  for  years  the  stable-keeper  in  New  York  City 
where  gentlemen  board  their  valuable  horses.  Yan  Cott' s 
stable  represents  to  the  horses  Avhat  the  Murray  Hill  Hotel 
does  to  the  human  race. 

Charles  Marvin  has  made  his  greatest  reputation  in  con- 
nection with  the  Electioneer  family.  He  hrst  made  his  bow 
to  the  eastern  public  in  connection  with  Smuggler,  and  he 
handled  that  uncertain  horse  with  so  much  skill  that  when 
Governor  Stanford  asked  Mr.  Doble  to  name  a.  man  to  take 
charge  of  the  training  of  his  numerous  stable,  Budd,  always 
a  conservative  man,  without  -diiy  hesitation  named  Marvin. 
The  result  proves  that  Budd  knew  his  man,  as  in  the  years 
in  which  Marvin  has  been  connected  with  Governor  Stan- 
ford* s  place  he  has  accomplished  more  than  has  ever  been  done 
by  any  other  man.  I  am  Avilling  to  concede  that  Marvin  has 
had  good  material  to  work  on .  But  if  you  give  a  man  the  best 
jAece  of  cloth  in  the  world  and  he  is  not  an  artistic  tailor  he 
will  be  unable  to  make  from  it  a  suit  of  clothes  that  looks 
w^ell  on  his  customer.  The  winter  of  1876  I  spent  in  Califor- 
nia and  w^as  one  of  a  party  who  accepted  Governor  Stan- 
ford's invitation  to  spend  a  day  at  his  farm,  he  having 
purchased  it  a  short  time  previously.  I  little  thought  what 
relation  it  would  in  a  few  years  occupy  to  the  trotting  world. 
We  spent  a  pleasant  day  and  w^ere  greatly  entertained  by 
Governor  Stanford  giving  us  a  sketch  of  his  early  life  in  con- 
nection with  California.  He  told  us  how  he  and  his  part- 
ners had  struggled  along  in  the  greatest  railroad  undertak- 
ing that  ever  a  few  men  were  engaged  in.  At  this  time  the 
fruits  of  his  labor  had  just  commenced  to  return.  I  think 
he  was  more  pleased  as  it  was  about  to  be  proven  that  in 
building  the  railroad  he  was  a  benefactor  to  the  State  that  he 
loved  so  well.  In  appearance  and  manner  he  reminded  me 
very  much  of  General  Grant;  was  perhaps  a  little  more  of  a 
talker,  but  with  that  same  magnetism  that  affected  every- 
one with  whom  he  came  in  contact.     As  Mr.  Doble  had  Oc- 


LIFE   WITH   THE   TROTTERS.  275 

cident  in  his  stable  that  winter  I  had  many  a  pleasant  chat 
with  the  Governor.  I  soon  learned  one  thino-,  that  he  was 
not  an  imitator.  When  he  talked  of  breeding  horses  I  t'onnd 
that  he  had  his  own  ideas  of  what  would  constitute  a  race- 
horse and  Avliat  would  produce  tluit  animal.  When  it  was 
announced  through  the  i^ress  that  he  had  x^aid  $44,000  to 
Mr.  Charles  Backman  for  animals  to  found  a  breeding  estab- 
lishment people  little  thought  that  he  would  in  a  few  years 
produce  one  colt  that  would  at  jpublic  auction  bring  more 
than  that  amount  of  money,  which  he  did  as  Bell  Boy,  bred 
at  his  place,  brought  $50,000. 

An  instance  happened  in  connection  with  this  colt  which 
gave  a  friend  of  mine  an  opportunity  to  laugh  at  me.  In 
my  list  of  friends  I  had  one,  a  character  of  the  name  of 
Pollock.  He  was  a  native  of  Ohio  and  had  the  love  for  a 
horse  born  in  him.  He  was  a  self-made  man,  having  fought 
his  own  way  up,  therefore  thought  he  had  the  right  to  use 
his  money  in  any  way  he  thought  fit,  and  for  a  man  who 
worked  for  his  money  was  about  as  reckless  with  it  as  any- 
one I  ever  saw,  being  always  willing  to  loan  it  to  me  on  my 
word.  It  was  suggested  to  him  by  a  friend  that  it  would  be 
a  good  plan  to  buy  Bell  Boy,  then  a  yearling,  for  $5,000. 
He  interviewed  me  on  the  subject  and  asked  me  if  I  would 
like  to  have  an  interest  in  him.  I  told  him  he  might  be  able 
to  buy  yearling  colts  at  $5,000,  but  in  the  present  state  of 
my  finances  I  would  not  be  able  to  joay  for  more  than  one 
hair  out  of  his  tail  at  that  price,  and  as  I  gave  him  no  en- 
couragement he  let  the  matter  droi).  But  I  do  not  consider 
we  lost  the  $50,000  that  Bell  Boy  brought,  for  he  might  not 
have  brought  that  much  if  we  had  owned  him.  Governor 
Stanford  has  also  sold  a  yearling  for  $12,500,  and  any  num- 
ber of  other  horses  at  very  long  prices,  and  it  looks  as  if  his 
harvest  had  just  commenced.  Marvin's  strong  card,  I  think, 
is  his  everlasting  industry.  He  has  probably  ridden  more 
miles  in  the  last  ten  years  than  any  two  horse  trainers  that 
I  know  of.  Some  men  imagine  that  a  man  gets  to  the  tox> 
of  the  ladder  in  his  professiim  by  pure  luck.     I  am  a  good 


276  LIFE   WITH   THE   TKOTTEKS. 

(leal  like  Mr.  Baldwin,  known  as  "Lucky  Baldwin";  he 
says  a  man  is  more  liable  to  get  there  by  i)luck.  While 
Marvin  has  had  plenty  of  raw  material  of  the  best  quality 
to  work  on,  to  work  out  the  result  that  he  has  I  think  proves 
that  he  must  have  been  a  man  of  great  ability  and  industry. 
That  he  has  filled  his  position  with  satisfaction  to  his  em- 
ployer is  proven  by  his  being  able  to  hold  it  for  so  long  a 
time.  Not  only  is  Marvin  caj^able  of  training  and  driving 
a  colt  but  I  have  seen  him  handle  aged  horses  equally  as 
well.  His  training  and  driving  of  Smuggler  stamped  him 
as  a  mechanic  of  the  first  water. 

I  have  spoken  of  Golden  and  Bowen  as  men  who  have 
made  their  mark  in  their  profession,  and  between  them  they 
have  done  more  than  any  other  men  to  bring  into  promi- 
nence the  Lambert  family,  which  I  consider  to  be  in  some 
respects  one  of  the  very  best  strains  of  trotting  blood.  It  is 
true  that  extreme  speed  on  the  race-track  is  not  a  merit  of 
the  Lamberts,  but  nevertheless  Daniel  Lambert  Has  sired 
something  like  thirty  horses  that  have  made  records  of  2:30  or 
better,  and  for  road  driving  they  are  in  my  opinion  unsur- 
passed, being  beautifully  gaited,  with  as  j)leasant  mouths 
for  the  bit  as  one  could  imagine. 

A  breeder  of  whom  the  public  will  know  more  in  the 
future  than  it  has  in  the  i^ast  is  Mortimer  McRoberts  of 
Chicago.  A  few  years  since  his  physician  advised  that  on 
account  of  failing  health  Mr.  Mc  Roberts  should  purchase  a 
fine  road-team.  He  took  pains  to  secure  a  perfectly  matched 
pair  that  were  fast,  and  at  the  same  time  pleasant  to  drive, 
and  the  trouble  he  experienced  in  doing  this  resulted  in  his 
establishing  the  Rock  River  stock  farm  at  Dixon,  111.  Mr. 
McRoberts,  who  had  been  successful  in  business  life,  saw 
that  the  breeding  of  trotters  that  were  distinctly  road-horses 
had  been  overlooked,  and  it  was  with  this  in  mind  that  his 
breeding  venture  was  begun.  The  j)remier  sire,  at  this  place, 
McRoberts'  Venture,  is  a  sixteen-hand  dark -brown  horse, 
that  has  aptly  been  called  ' '  The  Lambert  of  Lamberts. ' '  He 
is  by  Aristos,  son  of  Daniel  Lambert  who  made  a  record  of 


LIFE   WITH   THE   TROTTERS.  277 

better  than  2:30,  out  of  Fanny  Jackson  by  Stonewall,  her 
flam  being  Betty  Condon  by  North  American.  Venture's 
dam  was  Kate  by  Abraham;  and  his  second  dam  was  Pollyv 
Cook  by  Vermont  Blackhawk.  Abraham  is  a  kou  of  Daniel 
Lambert,  and  as  Vermont  Blackhawk  is  of  the  same  strain 
of  blood  that  produced  Ethan  Allen,  sire  of  Daniel  Lambert, 
it  will  be  seen  that  the  pedigree  is  a  x>henomenally  rich  one 
in  Morgan  blood,  especially  when  it  is  added,  also  that  the 
second  dam  of  Venture  was  a  Morgan  mare. 

The  Morgans  are  typical  road-horses  and  the  Lamberts 
are  kings  of  the  Morgan  family,  so  that  in  Venture  Mr. 
McRoberts  has  the  essence  of  blood  that  has  amply  proved 
itself  by  far  the  best  for  the  purpose  for  which  he  has  used 
it.  He  does  not  claim  that  he  is  a  breeder  of  race-horses, 
believing  that  if  they  have  any  speed  at  the  trot,  they  will 
show  it  for  themselves,  but  in  the  matter  of  gentlemen' s 
horses  for  road  driving,  he  1  akes  second  place  to  nobody.  An- 
other wonderfully  well-bred  stallion  on  the  McRoberts  place 
is  Wanderer,  a  son  of  Grand  Sentinel,  which  last-named  liorse 
has  been  previously  referred  to  in  these  pages.  The  first  dam 
of  Wanderer  was  Agatha  by  Abdallah  Mambrino,  son  of 
Almont,  and  her  dam  was  by  Goldsmith,  a  son  of  Rysdyk's 
Hambletonian.  This  is  performing  trotting  blood  on  all 
sides,  as  Grand  Sentinel  was  by  a  full  brother  to  Volunteer, 
and  out  of  a  mare  by  Mambrino  Pilot,  one  of  the  best  sons 
of  Pilot  Jr.,  and  that,  in  addition  to  being  well  bred  was  a 
trotter  himself ,  and  sired  two  such  famous  ones  as  Mambrino 
(xift,  2:20,  and  Ilannis,  2:17^,  Mambrino  Gift  being  the  first 
stallion  to  trot  in  2:20,  while  Hannis  made  a  rej)utation  that 
is  natural.  Looking  in  another  direction,  Mr.  McRoberts 
saw  how  x:)otent  had  been  the  blood  of  Mambrino  Patchen 
in  the  production  of  2:30  trotters,  and  with  this  in  mind  he 
I)urchased  Mambrino  Empire,  by  Empire,  a  son  of  ]\fam- 
brino  Patchen.  Empire' s  dam  was  the  famous  mare  Favorite 
by  Alexander' s  Abdallah,  dam  of  Favorite  Wilkes  and  othei- 
well-known  horses.  Mambrino  Empire  is  out  of  Casella,  by 
Mambrino  Bashaw,  grandson  of  Mambrino  Pilot.     Cunard 


278  LIFE   WITH    'IIIK   'IIIOTTEES. 

is  also  on  Mr.  McRoberts'  farm.  He  is  l)y  Venture  out  of 
Nannie  Thorne,  a  well-bred  daughter  of  Hamlet,  her  dam 
being  by  Seeley'  s  American  Star.  To  show  the  potency  of 
her  blood,  it  is  only  necessary  to  say  that  she  is  the  dam  of 
Thornless,  whose  record  is  better  than  2:20,  and  who  I  saw 
trot  a  mile  in  2:16f  last  year,  and  of  Little  Thorn,  that  is 
also  standard  by  performance.  Chelmsford,  another  son  of 
Venture  is  out  of  Grypsj^,  daughter  of  Mambrino  Pilot  Jr., 
her  iirst  dam  l^eing  by  Royal  Revenge,  her  second  dam  by 
Simpson's  Blackbird,  both  horses  of  remarkable  individu- 
ality themselves,  and  with  power  to  impart  speed  at  the  trot. 

In  brood-mares,  Mr.  McRoberts'  collection  is  a  choice 
one,  Nannie  Thorne  being  at  the  head,  and  from  her  he  has 
secured  two  fillies  that  are  very  fast.  Josephine,  another 
brood-mare,  is  by  Louis  Naj^oleon,  sire  of  Jerome  Eddy, 
2:16^,  and  her  four-year-old  daughter  Delphine  by  Venture 
can  already  show  a  better  than  2:30  gait.  Bessie  Rysdyk 
is  by  William  Rysdyk.  One  of  her  foals  is  a  three-year- 
old  pacer  called  Pamela,  whose  speed  is  something  phenom- 
enal. Indian  Queen  is  by  Indian  Chief,  that  has  given  us 
Lady  de  Jarnette,  and  her  dam  is  by  Selim,  sire  of  S:  ranger, 
2:28^.  She  has  a  four-year-old  by  Grand  Sentinel  that  can 
beat  2:30.  Halca  is  a  full  sister  to  Theta,  that  has  a  record 
better  than  2:30,  and  that  is  best  of  the  Almont  Rattler 
family.  Heroine  is  full  of  Morgan  blood,  being  by  Leon 
by  Anthony  Wayne,  out  of  a  mare  by  A^ermont  Hero,  son 
of  Sherman's  Blackhawk. 

It  will  be  seen  that  in  the  breeding  of  road-horses  Mr. 
McRoberts  has  not  in  his  opeiations  confined  himself  to  one 
family,  but  has  selected  his  brood-mares  from  the  most  ap- 
proved strains  of  trotting  blood,  that  have  been  tested  by 
performance  and  not  found  wanting  for  the  purpose  of  as- 
certaining which  strain  was  best  to  accomplish  his  purpose 
in  breeding.  He  has  bred  six  liorses  that  can  beat  2:30,  and 
the  success  of  his  operations  has  but  just  begun. 

A.  J.  McKimmin  is  one  of  the  "  befoh  the  wah,  sah" 
Southerners.     His  first  appearance  in  the  North  was  in  con- 


LIFE    WITH   TirE  TROTTEES.  279 

nectioii  with  Blackwood,  Jr. ,  and  at  the  end  of  his  hrst  cam- 
paign w^as  the  black  stallion  called  "  The  Iron  Horse  of  Ten- 
nessee," a  name  he  richly  deserved  from  the  great  number 
of  hard  contests  he  had  taken  part  in.  There  was  one  thing 
in  McKimmin's  character  very  necessary  in  a  horse  driver, 
and  that  was  he  was  not  afraid  of  anybody.  While  he  was 
not  a  quarrelsome  man  I  have  seen  him  on  one  or  two  occa- 
sions with  a  look  in  his  eye  which  showed  that  he  was  not 
to  be  trifled  with.  In  appearance  he  is  a  little"  large  for  a 
driver  and  has  the  general  air  of  a  well-to-do  farmer.  Not 
only  is  he  a  successful  horse  driver,  but  in  a  newspaper  war 
with  some  of  the  trotting  associations  he  made  not  a  few^ 
centre  shots  and  showed  his  opponents  that  the  whij)  w^as  not 
his  only  strong  suit.  At  present  he  is  the  possessor  of  a 
breeding  farm  and  confines  his  attention  almost  wholly  to 
that,  leaving  the  excitement  of  driving  to  his  friends.  Rob- 
ert Anderson,  another  Southern  x)roduction,  lias  made  sev- 
eral raids  on  the  Northern  country  wdth  his  race-horses.  His 
most  notable  charger  was  Argyle  the  pacer.  This  horse  in 
Bob's  hands  went  some  good  races  and  some  bad  ones,  but 
in  the  wreck  Bob  must  have  saved  something  as  I  under- 
stand he  is  the  flourishing  proxmetor  of  a  first-class  livery 
stable.  I  want  to  say  here  that  it  was  through  no  fault  of 
Bob' s  that  Argyle  used  to  make  those  ' '  Jimtown ' '  breaks, 
as  he  has  on  several  occasions  done  the  same  thing  with  me. 
Dod  Irwin  is  a  Quaker  and  a  rejiresentative  driver  of  the 
Quaker  City.  To  say  that  he  learned  his  trade  with  William 
Doble  is  enough  to  convince  anyone  that  he  will  do  to  go  for 
the  money,  and  if  he  drives  your  horse  and  does  not  win 
you  can  rest  assured  the  horse  is  troubled  with  the  slows. 
Eugene  Rood  hails  from  Wisconsin.  Years  ago  he  showed 
the  boys  a  taste  of  his  mettle  by  dragging  off  tlie  pool-box 
with  Mazo-Manie,  and  would  have  dragged  off  the  track  if 
it  had  not  been  fastened  down.  George  W.  Webber,  another 
native  of  Wisconsin,  is  noted  for  his  easy  manners,  his 
qualities  as  an  all-round  horseman  and  the  size  and  brill- 
iancy of  his  diamonds,  he  having  more  monev  invested  in 


280  LIFE   WITH   THE  TROTTERS. 

gems  than  any  other  driver  that  I  know  of  excepting  Bobby- 
Stewart.  George  has  made  several  successful  campaigns, 
the  most  notable  one  j)erliaps  being  with  St.  Albans  who 
acquired  a  record  of  2:20  and  at  the  same  time  made  his 
driver  plenty  of  money. 

Mr.  William  Doble,  or  '•  Uncle  Billy"  as  everyone  loves 
to  call  him,  is,  I  think,  the  oldest  driver  in  the  country.  He 
commenced  his  career  years  ago  when  a  horse  that  trotted 
in  three  minutes  was  considered  a  veritable  racer.  He  has 
had  a  long  and  i^leasant  life,  made  many  friends,  his  repu- 
tation as  a  driver  and  manager  of  trotting  horses  has  been 
first  class,  and  Orrin  Hickok  has  often  told  me  that  to  Uncle 
Billy  more  than  to  any  other  man  was  he  indebted  for  the 
success  of  Lucy  after  the  mare  came  to  his  stable.  Not  only 
has  Uncle  Billy  a  reputation  as  a  great  driver  himself,  but 
he  is  the  father  of  a  family  of  drivers,  having  three  sons 
who  have  made  reputations  in  the  sulky.  He  has  never  lost 
his  interest  in  trotters,  is  just  as  willing  to  back  his  opinion 
as  when  he  was  a  boy,  is  not  at  all  backward  about  going- 
out  and  driving  for  his  money  against  any  of  the  present 
generation  of  experts;  and  I  will  give  the  boys  one  word  of 
caution:  Don  t  make  a  race  with  Uncle  Billy  with  the 
expectation  of  being  able  to  out-drive  him,  foi-  I  have  seen 
some  good  men  try  that  and  fail. 

Bob  Kneebs  is  one  of  the  men  who  took  Horace  Greeley's 
advice  and  went  West  to  grow  up  with  the  country.  His 
natural  love  of  horses  led  him  into  the  business  and  in  the 
first  part  of  his  career  in  racing  horses  with  the  Indians  he 
did  not  have  the  opxoortunity  to  show  his  talent  that  has  since 
made  him  famous  through  all  the  Western  campaigTis.  Some 
men  say  that  good  hoi;pes  make  good  drivers.  That  may  be 
so  to  a  certain  extent,  but  I  have  seen  Bob  drive  some  bad 
horses  and  do  it  well.  I  think  the  best  breadwinner  he  ever 
had  was  Elm  wood  Chief,  who  made  a  record  of  2-A8^  and 
has  for  years  won  a  large  percentage  of  his  races.  Of  late 
years  Bob  has  devoted  a  part  of  his  time  to  the  breeding  and 
raising  of  horses.    In  this  line  he  has  also  been  successful.    If 


LIFE  WITH   THE  TKOTTERS.  281 

you  go  West  expecting  to  get  Bob's  scalj)  with  a  trotting 
horse,  take  a  good  one  or  you  may  find  yourself  at  a  dis- 
advantage, George  Cook,  the  little  man  who  on  the  turf 
goes  by  the  name  of  "Cooky,"  made  his  greatest  rei)uta- 
tion  in  connection  with  the  AVilkes  family,  he  having  given 
Rosa  Wilkes  and  Joe  Bunker  records  better  than  2:20,  and 
won  some  well-contested  battles  with  both  of  them.  He  is 
at  present  the  trainer  at  Hermitage  farm,  the  home  of 
Wedge  wood,  and  I  expect  to  see  him  out  with  many  a  Avin- 
ner  by  my  old  favorite. 

To  show  that  the  trotting-horse  owners  of  the  future 
will  not  be  short  of  good  drivers,  I  will  give  a  few  tips  on 
the  younger  generation  of  drivers  now  coming  out.  As  this 
book  treats  entirely  of  facts  and  records,  Ed  Bither  is  entitled 
to  first  position  in  this  class,  he  having  done  more  by  the 
records  than  any  man  living  or  dead,  that  is  to  give  two 
trotters  records  better  than  2:14,  namely  Jay-Eye-See,  2:10, 
and  Phallas,  2: 13|.  I  have  heard  people  criticise  Ed  and  his 
methods  of  training  and  driving,  and  I  do  not  wish  to  say 
that  no  other  man  could  have  driven  the  horses  as  well,  but 
Ed  did  do  it  and  I  think  he  is  entitled  to  all  the  glory 
arising  from  the  feat.  There  is  one  thing  I  am  sure  of,  that 
no  horse,  no  matter  how  good,  can  malve  the  public  per- 
formances that  these  two  made  for  Bither  without  beine: 
well  trained  and  properly  driven.  In  appearance  Bither  is 
a  young  man  of  medium  height,  well  behaved,  with  a  com- 
fortable bank  account  and  I  know  it  will  be  of  interest  to 
my  lady  readers  when  I  say  that  he  is  still  a  single  man. 

Next  by  the  record  comes  Millard  Sanders.  His  public 
career  on  the  turf  has  been  very  short  but  brilliant,  he  hav- 
ing won  some  grand  races  with  Clingstone,  given  Guy  his 
record  of  2:12  in  his  first  regular  campaign,  has  the  best 
record  for  four-in-hand,  and  to  have  done  all  this  in  a  short 
time  shows  that  his  early  education  in  the  horse  line  was 
not  neglected.  He  has  charge  of  Mr.  W.  J.  Gordon's  breed- 
ing and  training  establishment,  and  a  visit  to  that  place  will 
convince  the  most  skeptical  that  he  thoroughly  understands 


2S2  LIFE    WITH   THE   TItOTTEKS. 

his  business.  Next  we  have  Scott  Quinton  of  New  Jersey,  who 
is  a  very  dressy  young  fellow.  Scott  has  given  Favonia  a 
record  of  2:15,  and  the  i^acer  Gossip  Jr.  a  mark  of  2:14.  He 
comes  honestly  by  his  love  for  horses,  his  father  having  been 
a  first-class  horseman.  Mr.  Quinton  is  a  very  genteel  looking 
young  man  and  with  his  dress  suit  on  at  a  swell  dinner  or 
theatre  party  is  simply  immense.  Next  in  line  is  Bob  Stew- 
art, he  being  entitled  to  fourth  money,  having  given  White 
Stockings  a  record  of  2:16.  Bob  comes  under  the  head  of  a 
gentleman  driver, — that  is  he  owns  and  drives  his  own  horses, 
and  in  that  class  he  leads  the  list.  Whenever  Bob's  horse 
trots  through  the  grand  circuit  it  is  considered  ladies'  day,  as 
Bob  always  has  a  handsome  horse,  is  well  dressed  himself 
and  his  diamonds  are  the  envy  of  more  than  one  man.  The 
love  of  the  horse  in  the  SteAvart  family  is  not  all  centered  in 
Bob.  John,  his  younger  brother  has  never  yet  made  his 
bow  to  the  i3ublic  as  a  professional  driver,  but  as  an  enemy 
of  the  book-makers  and  a  plunger  in  the  pool-box,  he  is  only 
equaled  by  their  father,  who  makes  occasional  raids  from 
the  far  West  and  if  he  does  not  beat  the  pool-box  he  gives 
it  such  a  shaking  up  that  it  does  not  get  back  to  its  normal 
condition  before  he  is  ready  to  take  another  fall  out  of  it. 
In  the  pacing-horse  division  Rody  Patterson  takes  the 
banner,  he  having  given  Bessemer,  a  four-year-old  stallion, 
a  record  of  2:15  which  is  the  best  up  to  date  for  an  entire 
horse  of  that  age.  In  this  Rody  did  more  than  many  drivers 
have  been  able  to  accomplish  in  a  lifetime.  Two  fifteen 
may  not  seem  fast  on  paper,  but  there  are  few  men  who  have 
ever  had  the  pleasure  of  riding  that  fast  in  a  sulky.  Budd 
Doble,  with  all  his  experience,  never  rode  a  mile  in  the 
sulky  better  than  2:14  until  last  year.  For  Rody  Patterson 
I  predict  a  brilliant  future.  His  business  education  and 
moral  training  has  been  of  the  very  best,  as  no  boy  was  ever 
more  carefully  reared.  His  father  before  him  was  a  horse- 
man and  his  grandfather  followed  the  same  vocation  for  a 
living.  Rody' s  father  as  secretary,  owner  and  driver  was 
always  closely  connected  with  the  turf  and  his  record  was 


LIFE   WITH   THE  TROTTERS.  283 

that  he  was  honest,  kind  and  true,  and  treated  everyone  as 
he  wished  to  have  them  treat  him.  This  was  his  religion, 
and  he  lived  up  to  it  without  a  miss-score  or  a  break.  AVhat 
wonder  then  that  young  Rody  with  that  example  before  him 
should  already  have  made  for  himself  a  record  as  a  man  and 
a  driver?  I  do  not  remember  of  having  seen  anything  X3leased 
an  audience  more  than  it  did  when  Rody  won  a  race  with 
Bessemer  and  gave  him  his  record  of  2:15  the  day  he  was 
twenty-one  years  old.  I  know  one  handsome  young  lady 
who  was  iDarticularly  liaiopy.  Besides  being  a  trainer  and 
driver,  Rody  manages,  together  with  his  mother,  one  of 
the  handsomest  breeding  farms  in  Kentucky.  He  also  trains, 
drives  and  keeps  all  kinds  of  animals  for  other  people  and 
he  has  my  indorsement  as  being  able  and  willing  to  fill  the 
position  in  a  satisfactory  manner  to  anyone  wishing  his 
services. 

M.  E.  McHenry  is,  I  believe,  a  native"  of  Illinois.  In 
size  etc.,  he  reminds  me  very  much  of  Turner.  My  first 
introduction  to  McHenry  convinced  me  that  size  cut  no 
figure  with  him.  We  were  both  driving  in  a  race  on  one  of 
the  outside  tracks  where  everyone  takes  the  -pole  at  once  if 
they  can  get  it,  and  the  first  I  knew  I  was  having  a  battle 
royal  with  some  young  man  I  had  never  before  seen.  I 
returned  to  the  stand  after  the  heat  and  asked  a  friend  of 
mine  who  he  was.  He  re^Dlied,  "  McHenry,  from  Illinois." 
I  replied  that  McHenry  from  Illinois  was  about  as  indus- 
trious a  young  man  as  I  had  ever  seen  out  with  a  horse  and 
wagon  trying  to  make  a  living  for  himself.  I  put  him  down 
in  my  book  as  one  of  the  young  men  not  to  be  overlooked 
any  time  he  was  in  the  ranks.  In  Shuler,  Johnny  Kelly 
and  a  number  of  other  young  men  whose  names  I  do  not  at 
present  recaU,  the  Western  country  has  material  to  always 
keep  the  rank  of  the  trotting-horse  drivers  up  to  the  stand- 
ard. In  the  East,  among  the  shining  lights  in  the  new  divis- 
ion is  Mr.  William  Snyder.  I  think  the  first  lessons  he 
ever  took  in  connection  with  trotting  horses  he  learned  in 
my  stable.     In  the  early  part  of  my  career  I  trained  a  horse 

19 


284  LIFE   AVITII  THE  TEOTTERS. 

for  Snyder' s  father,  and  in  that  way  made  his  acquaintance. 
He  is  not  only  a  good  horse  driver  and  a  good  trainer  but  has 
l^roved  liimself  a  successful  business  man.  By  trade  he  is 
a  hrst-class  civil  engineer,  and  between  heats  has  managed 
as  superintendent  the  building  of  a  good  many  miles  of 
railroad. 

Captain  Boyce's  title  is  no  em^Dty  one,  as  he  was  one  of 
the  men  who  went  to  the  front  and  was  just  as  willing  to 
defend  his  country  in  times  of  trouble  as  he  would  be  now 
to  win  first  money  in  the  $10,000  purse.  The  CaiDtain  has 
always  had  a  more  or  less  active  life  with  trotting  horses, 
has  given  a  great  many  of  them  their  best  records  and  is  at 
present  manager  and  trainer  for  one  of  the  largest  stock 
farms  in  this  country,  and  if  the  j^roduce  of  the  farm  do 
not  iDut  their  names  on  the  roll  of  honor  it  will  not  be  the 
fault  of  the  Captain.  In  Kentucky  among  the  leaders  in 
in  the  business  are  the  well-known  Bowerman  brothers, 
Mike  and  George.  Together,  they  are  a  strong  team. 
Each  has  in  himself  the  elements  that  the  other  seems  to 
lack,  George,  I  think,  being  the  strongest  in  laying  out  the 
plan  of  battle.  But  when  it  comes  to  the  part  where  the 
shooting  takes  place,  with  all  due  regard  to  George,  I  want 
my  money  on  Mike.  I  have  had  a  great  deal  of  respect  for 
Mike's  ability  in  matters  pertaining  to  a  trotting  horse  since 
the  day  that  J.  Q,  and  Sparkle  had  their  memorable  con- 
test over  the  Cleveland  track.  That  the  Bowermans  have 
not,  in  the  hurry  and  bustle  of  the  trotting-horse  excite- 
ment, neglected  to  look  after  their  bank  account  is  x^roven 
by  the  fact  that  their  checks  are  always  honored.  They 
number  among  their  patrons  some  of  the  leading  breeders 
and  owners  of  the  country  who  are  always  sure  of  fair 
and  honest  treatment  at  their  hands.  Gus  Wilson  learned 
his  trade  in  what  is  considered  the  old  legitimate  way,  that 
is,  went  as  a  boy  and  served  his  time  with  Horace  Jones, 
one  of  the  leading  horse  trainers  of  that  day.  As  proof 
that  he  did  not  waste  his  time  or  talent,  he  gave  to  Hattie 
Woodard  a  record  of  2:15^,  and  had  she  not  met  with  an 


LIFE   WITH   THE  TROTTEES.  285 

accident  would  without  doubt  have  improved  that.  He  also 
won  the  $10,000  stallion  race  with  the  stallion  Alexander 
and  gave  him  his  best  record.  Gns  is  one  of  the  sort  of 
people  a  good  deal  like  some  horses,  they  have  a  little  more 
to  them  tlian  you  expect,  and  for  that  reason  when  he 
starts  in  a  race  he  never  disax)i)oints  the  public. 

John  Call,  who  dates  his  connection  with  the  turf  way 
back  when  Belle  Patterson  and  Annie  Collins  were  young- 
sters, devotes  his  time  and  attention  more  particulaily  to  the 
training  and  developing  of  young  horses  for  peoj^le  who  do 
not  keep  a  private  trainer  of  their  own,  and  in  this  line  he 
has  been  x^articularly  successful.  He  steps  out  occasionally 
and  makes  a  raid  on  the  boys  and  shows  them  that  he  is 
not  afraid  to  go  out  in  deej)  water.  He  makes  his  home  at 
Cleveland,  and  has  the  advantage  there  having  the  best 
training  ground  that  I  know  of  for  all  kinds  of  horses. 
Alt  a  McDonald,  of  Albany,  is  entitled  to  be  classed  with 
the  youngsters,  and  a  cute  one  at  that.  What  Alta  does 
not  know  of  the  ins  and  outs  of  a  plain  everyday  horse- 
race is  not  worth  knowing.  He  is  always  willing  to  bar  age 
and  size  and  take  whatever  the  judges  lead  out  to  him  for 
his  share  of  the  money,  and  up  to  the  present  time,  I  think, 
he  has  been  enabled  to  get  all  he  was  really  entitled  to. 
As  a  trainer,  he  has  shown  from  his  boyhood  his  ability  to 
not  only  condition  his  horses,  but  what  I  consider  a  much 
harder  feat,  to  keep  them  in  condition  through  a  long  cam- 
paign. He  always  drives  to  win,  which  I  think  very 
commendable  in  a  young  man  in  these  times,  where  there  is 
often  a  temptation  to  do  differently. 

Tom  Grady,  another  Albany  trainer,  is  an  Irishman  by 
birth  and  a  gentleman  in  conduct.  He  has  made  a  study  of 
trotting  horses  both  in  books  and  by  actual  experience  the 
greater  part  of  his  life.  He  and  Charlie  Nolan  have  always 
been  great  friends.  Whenever  I  see  them  in  consultation 
on  the  race-track  I  make  up  my  mind  that  the  Fenians  are 
going  to  book  a  winning.  Nolan  has  been  one  of  the  strongest 
supporters  of  the  trotting  turf,  a  sportsman  for  pleasure, 


286  LIFE   WITH   THE   TR(n"TERS. 

a  railroad  contractor  by  occupation  and  while  lie  does  not 
go  around  the  country  making  bonfires  of  his  monej^,  he  is 
always  Avilling  to  pay  the  top  price  for  a  good  horse,  and 
whenever  General  Turner  says  so  he  is  ready  to  win,  backs 
his  oj)inion  till  the  books  are  closed.  John  Driscoll,  a 
young  man  whose  name  has  long  been  before  the  public,  he 
having  started  in  his  public  career  as  a  boy  under  the  tute- 
lage of  the  world-renowned  William  Hey  wood,  trains  for 
Mr.  Shults  of  Brooklyn,  a  man  who  has  expended  as  much 
money  of  late  years  for  horses  as  anyone  I  know  of.  For 
Driscoll  to  be  placed  in  charge  of  all  these  valuable  horses 
and  pror)erty  by  a  man  of  Mr.  Shults' s  business  experience 
is  recomendation  enough  for  anyone.  John  is  a  little  under 
the  medium  size,  weighs  about  135  or  140  i^ounds,  has 
plenty  of  determination,  and  his  early  education  could  not 
have  been  better  to  fit  him  for  a  trainer  and  driver. 

Hiram  Howe,  one  of  Hiram  Woodrujff's  scholars,  made 
his  mark  in  connection  with  the  American  Girl.  Of  late 
years  he  has  given  uj)  training  and  trotting,  is  the  pro- 
prietor of  one  of  the  best  hotels  on  Long  Island,  and  in  the 
Avinter  days  more  races  have  been  trotted  around  Hiram' s 
stove  than  on  any  other  part  of  Long  Island.  The  two 
Perrin  boys,  George  and  Ed,  trace  the  trotting-horse  strain 
in  their  j)edigree  back  to  the  third  generation.  Not  only 
their  father,  but  their  grandfather  Avas  always  a  lover  and 
strong  supporter  of  the  trotting  turf,  and  their  father  at  one 
time  owned  Flora  Temple.  The  boys  in  their  youthful 
days  brought  up  in  luxury,  did  not  like  some  other  young- 
men  when  the  storm  came  and  swept  their  fortune  away, 
sit  down  and  wait  for  someone  to  bring  them  another. 
They  took  off  their  coats  and  went  to  work.  While  neither 
one  of  them  has  ever  been  fortunate  enough  to  have  a  star 
performer,  should  they  ever  get  one  that  can  step  a  mile 
in  about  2:10  I  will  guarantee  they  will  not  have  to  be  tied 
in  the  sulky  to  keep  from  being  blown  out.  Steve  Phil- 
lips sprung  to  the  front  with  one  bound  as  it  were  with 
the  celebrated  pacing  horse  Sleepy  Tom.     Many  people 


LIFE    WITH    THE   TROTTERS.  287 

imagine  that  this  horse  did  not  come  honestly  by  his  won- 
derful speed,  but  such  is  not  the  case  as  he  traced  his  ped- 
igree back  to  one  of  the  most  wonderful  performers  the  turf 
has  ever  had.  I  speak  now  of  his  granddam  Pocahontas, 
who  years  ago  made  a  record  of  2:17^  to  a  wagon,  she  being 
in  foal  at  that  time,  and  the  produce  proved  to  be  the  sire 
of  Sleepy  Tom.  She  was  owned  at  the  time  by  a  man  of 
the  name  of  AVoodmansee,  a  resident  of  Ohio,  who  after- 
ward sold  her  to  James  D.  McMann  of  Flora  Temple  fame. 
That  the  horse  interest  did  not  die  out  in  the  Woodmansee 
family  is  shown  by  his  two  sons  Dan  and  Ben,  who  were  in 
his  lifetime  the  managers  and  conhdential  advisers  of  Com- 
modore Kittson.  Being  first-class  judges  of  horses  in  all 
their  branches,  good  business  men  and  strictly  honest  they 
were  of  great  value  to  Mr.  Kittson  in  all  his  connection 
with  the  turf. 

Sleepy  Tom  was  unfortunate  in  his  younger  days  by 
being  very  much  neglected  and  ill-treated  by  his  owner  and 
from  this  cause  lost  his  eyesight.  But  after  coming  into 
the  hands  of  Phillips,  who  bought  him  for  a  small  price, 
under  his  better  care  and  management  he  showed  symp- 
toms of  speed  which  afterward  made  him  famous.  He  beat 
all  the  best  pacers  of  his  day  and  was  the  first  horse  to  beat 
Rarus's  record  of  2:13^.  He  was  a  horse  of  rare  intelli- 
gence, and,  as  in  the  case  of  Prince,  the  loss  of  his  eye- 
sight seemed  to  increase  the  acuteness  of  all  his  other  facul- 
ties. In  driving  him  Phillips  always  talked  to  him  a  great 
deal  which  I  think  is  a  good  idea  to  do  with  any  horse.  I 
once  drove  him  in  a  race  for  Phillips,  he  having  met  with 
an  accident.  In  talking  the  race  over  he  advised  me  to  lay 
him  up  the  first  heat,  saying  it  would  give  me  a  chance  to 
learn  the  horse  and  we  could  put  our  money  on  at  a  better 
advantage.  At  this  time  there  used  to  be  a  great  deal 
written  in  the  newspapers  about  Tom  and  his  peculiarities 
and  how  Phillips  drove  him,  and  some  of  these  stories  were 
very  much  exaggerated.  After  I  drove  in  this  race  I  was 
interviewed  by  a  reporter  of  a  country  newspaper  who  was 


288  LIFE   WITH   THE   TROTTEES. 

very  anxious  to  have  a  scoop  on  all  the  rest  of  the  boys. 
He  asked  me  if  I  bad  any  difficulty  in  winning  with  Tom. 
I  told  him  no,  that  Mr.  Phillips  in  driving  the  horse  had  set 
speeches  that  he  made  to  him  at  different  parts  of  the  track, 
and  for  fear  that  I  would  get  tangled  up  in  it,  he  wrote 
them  out  for  me,  I  pinned  the  paper  on  my  knee  and  when 
the  word  was  given  kept  Tom's  head  steady  and  read  the 
instructions  and  in  that  manner  won  the  money.  The  re- 
porter published  this  and  I  received  many  letters  of  inquiry 
asking  me  if  such  was  the  case;  if  I  had  driven  Tom  by  the 
palmer.  Phillips  sold  the  horse  at  a  long  price,  retired  to 
his  rural  home,  bought  himself  a  farm,  was  I  believe  elected 
sheriff,  a  position  I  think  he  would  have  been  well  fitted 
for  as  it  would  have  taken  a  pretty  hard  prisoner  to  have 
gotten  away  from  Steve. 

Joe  Pea  had  the  love  of  the  trotting  horse  bred  in  him. 
A  native  of  Indiana,  the  home  of  the  pacer,  I  have  often 
heard  bis  father  tell  of  races  that  had  happened  before  Joe 
was  born.  Joe  made  his  greatest  success  in  connection  with 
R.  C.  Pate's  stable  when  that  gentleman  occupied  a  promi- 
nent position  on  the  trotting  turf.  He  also  gave  the  boys 
a  general  shaking  up  wdth  Amy  King,  going  through  the 
grand  circuit  with  her  and  winning  a  majority  of  the  races 
in  which  she  started.  Charlie  Forth,  also  a  native  of  In- 
diana, gave  Rowdy  Boy  his  reputation  and  record  of  2:13|, 
driving  him  in  many  a  well- contested  race  with  Mattie 
Hunter,  Lucy  and  Blind  Tom  when  they  constituted  what 
was  called  "The  Big  Four.' "  Sam  Keyes,.  of  Pittsburgh,  needs 
no  introduction  from  me.  He  is  considered  the  father  of 
all  pacing- horse  men,  as  years  ago,  when  no  one  but  a 
butcher  cared  to  own  a  pacer,  Sam  was  the  only  profes- 
sional man  who  took  an  interest  in  them,  and  as  the  public 
gradually  became  interested  in  that  style  of  racing  Sam 
still  continued  his  connection  with  the  side-wheelers,  and 
he  and  his  gray  mare  Lucy  probably  did  more  toward  mak- 
ing pacing  races  popular  with  the  public  than  any  other 
pair.     Sam  is  a  character,  true  to  his  friends,  had  a  deserved 


LIFE   WITH   THE  TKOTTERS.  289 

repntation  of  being  honest  with  the  public,  would  bet  his 
money  like  a  sailor  on  Lucy  when  it  looked  sometimes  as 
though  she  would  not  be  able  to  win,  and  I  think  his  horse 
account  has  always  been  on  the  right  side  of  the  ledger,  as 
he  is  a  good  business  man.  He  was  always  a  great  admirer 
of  Mace  and  whenever  not  able  to  drive  bis  ow^n  horses 
Mace  was  out  behind  them. 

Moore  Floyd,  another  Pittsburgh  man,  came  ]3rominently 
to  the  front  in  connection  with  Slow^  Go  and  won  some 
grand  races  with  him  in  the  big  circuit,  making  a  record 
of  about  2:18  Of  late  years  Moore  has  changed  his  busi- 
ness and  with  the  exception  of  an  occasional  visit  to  the 
race-track,  has  severed  his  connection  with  the  turf.  The 
name  of  Shank  is  familiar  to  all  the  people  in  Ohio,  there 
being  a  large  family  of  them  and  all  horsemen  from  the 
youngest  to  the  oldest.  Their  name  was  brought  j)rominently 
to  the  front  in  connection  wdth  Oliver  K.  They  had  a  horse 
called  Rutherford  Hayes,  wdiich  rumor  said  would  some  day 
be  a  world-beater.  These  wonderful  horse  stories  came  to 
the  ears  of  Mr.  Emery  and  he  and  a  friend  of  his  formed 
a  combination  or  trust,  so  to  speak,  and  at  a  long  price 
bought  of  the  Shank  family  this  going-to-be  beater  of  all 
records.  When  Shank  delivered  the  horse  at  Mr.  Emery's 
place  he  said  he  would  like  to  invest  a  little  of  the  money  in  a 
colt,  Mr.  Emery  at  this  time  having  begun  to  lay  the 
foundation  of  his  now  extensive  breeding  establishment.  In 
looking  over  the  list  of  colts  which  came  under  his  standard 
of  price,  etc.,  he  iDicked  out  one,  a  large  awkward-looking 
yearling,  and  paid  for  him  $150  and  wdtli  the  balance  of  his 
money  safely  tucked  in  his  boots  started  for  the  rural  dis- 
tricts. After  Mr.  Emery  had  given  Hayes  a  thorough  trial 
and  made  u^d  his  mind  that  the  horse  he  had  bought  from 
Shank  would  never  beat  2 :08|  he  concluded  to  try  and  sell  his 
interest.  After  some  correspondence  he  induced  his  j)artner 
to  accept  his  half  of  the  horse  as  a  present.  Not  so  with 
our  friend  Shank.  He  broke  his  colt  and  after  a  short  term 
of  education  started  for  the  pumpkin  fairs,  where  the  ani- 


290  LIFE   WITH   THE  TROTTERS. 

mal  perfomied  in  such  a  manner  that  again  the  story  went 
forth  that  Shank  had  a  sure-enough  world-beater.  If  Mr. 
Emery  ever  heard  the  story  he  coukl  not  have  paid  much 
attention  to  it  as  he  didn't  buy  this  one. 

The  fall  the  colt  was  four  years  old  Sbank  entered  him 
in  a  race  at  Cleveland  under  the  name  Oliver  K.,  and  with 
the  help  of  Davy  Muckle  bankrupted  the  whole  northern 
part  of  Ohio.  What  Mr.  Emery's  feelings  were  when  he 
saw  his  $150  colt  and  thought  of  the  animal  he  had  bought 
from  Shank,  I  will  not  undertake  to  describe.  Shank  sold 
his  colt  to  George  Forbes  for  $5, 000  in  money.  Again  loaded 
down  to  the  high-water  mark  with  Government  bonds  he 
returned  to  his  rural  home  and  built  himself  a  brown  stone 
front  where  he  passes  his  time  in  luxur}"  and  comfort  re- 
counting to  his  neighbors  how  he  beat  the  city  horsemen. 
The  following  spring  after  Forbes  bought  Oliver  K.  he  sent 
him  to  me  to  train  and  drive.  In  his  preparatory  work  the 
horse  showed  some  lameness,  but  not  until  I  had  seen 
enough  to  convince  me  that  he  was  another  Rarus,  which  is 
another  instance  of  the  argument  that  great  horses  are  born, 
and  not  made,  for  at  this  time  Oliver  K.'s  training  had  been 
very  limited,  but  he  showed  me  so  much  speed  that  I  was 
sure  that  he  would  be  a  star  performer.  After  a  consultation 
it  was  decided  to  let  him  up  in  his  work,  which  was  done. 
Misfortunes,  they  say  never  come  singly,  and  Forbes  had 
proof  of  this  in  the  disasters  that  followed.  He  had  always 
been  what  the  boys  call  a  hustler,  an  all-around  sport,  ad- 
mired everything  from  a  hundred-yard  foot-race  to  a  four- 
mile  running  race,  was  himself  at  one  time  champion  sj^rinter 
of  Canada,  and  entirely  b}^  his  OAvn  exertions  had  acquired 
a  comfortable  fortune.  He  invested  the  most  of  it  in  busi- 
ness in  Cleveland  and  had  the  misfortune  to  stand  by  and 
see  his  property,  which  represented  years  of  toil  and  labor, 
swept  into  the  lake  ;  and  after  the  flood  had  subsided  found 
himself  thousands  of  dollars  worse  off  than  nothing  on 
the  debit  side,  and  on  the  credit  side  there  was  one 
lame  trotting  horse  and  an  interesting  family  of  children. 


LIFE    WITH   THE   TROTTERS.  291 

He  stuck  to  the  children  and  tried  to  sell  his  horse,  but  as  it 
had  been  reported  that  he  had  been  lame  no  one  took  any 
interest  in  him.  I,  knowing  what  a  wonderful  trotter  he 
was,  tried  to  induce  a  wealthy  friend  of  mine  to  buy  him 
and  take  the  chances  of  his  recovery.  He  thought  that 
would  not  be  a  good  business  scheme,  so  Forbes  was  com- 
pelled to  keep  his  horse,  and  has  had  occasion  ever  since  to 
thank  his  stars  that  he  did,  as  the  next  year  he  trained  and 
drove  Oliver  K.  himself,  won  all  his  races  including  the 
$10,000  purse,  and  sold  him  for  $17,500  to  Mr.  Charles 
Schwartz,  of  Chicago.  From  that  day  until  this  fortune  has 
smiled  on  Forbes  and  it  will  take  an  old-time  flood  to  carry 
his  property  into  Lake  Erie  again.  A  handsome  painting  of 
Oliver  K.  adorns  his  j)aiior  walls  and  his  children  look  upon 
it  as  though  it  was  the  j)icture  of  a  hero.  In  Mr.  Schwartz' s 
hands  Oliver  K.  has  jDerformed  some  handsome  fea,ts,  having 
beaten  Harry  Wilkes  while  in  his  j)rime  and  gone  a  mile 
against  the  watch  in  2:15.  This  li  orse  is  not  considered  gilt- 
edged  in  breeding,  but  in  my  judgment,  if  he  had  been  fortu- 
nate enough  to  have  staid  sound,  he  would  have  comj^elled 
the  public  to  have  said  in  his  case  that  a  gilt-edged  pedigree 
was  not  absolutely  necessary  in  a  race-horse.  I  do  not  wish 
to  say  that  I  do  not  like  pedigree  in  horses,  as  I  do,  but  I 
do  not  want  all  j)edigree  and  no  horse.  If  I  have  a  good 
horse  that  has  a  good  pedigree,  I  have  more  confidence  in 
his  improving,  training  on,  and  lasting  than  I  would  in  a 
horse  without  a  pedigree. 

One  of  the  old-time  drivers  whose  methods  etc.,  made 
a  lasting  impression  on  my  mind  was  Simon  James.  He  was 
the  pride  of  the  Queen's  Own,  being  a  native  of  Canada 
and  one  of  the  Queen's  subjects.  Canadians  are  a  sport- 
loving  people  and  years  ago  had  a  breed  of  horses  that 
could  all  trot  some,  their  particular  forte  being  speed  and 
not  staying  qualities.  In  those  days  to  win  a  i-ace  at  Buf- 
falo was  considered  of  as  much  importance  as  to  win  now 
the  English  Derby.  Simon  made  occasional  raids  across  the 
American  border,  and,  such  high  esteem  and  confidence  was 


292  LIFE   WITH   THE   TROTTERS. 

he  held  in,  there  always  came  with  him  a  goodly  share  of 
Canada  money  to  back  his  chances.  One  of  the  best  races 
he  ever  drove  where  the  Canucks  carried  Uncle  Sam's  money 
back  by  the  bag  full  was  with  a  gray  horse  called  Milton, 
that  could  trot  a  mile  in  about  2:30,  but  was  credited  with 
staying  qualities  equal  to  ten  or  twenty  miles.  In  this  race 
he  was  not  the  fastest  but  lie  staid  the  longest.  It  was  looked 
upon  by  the  Canadians  as  a  national  victory,  and  he  was 
lionized  by  the  natives  accordingly.  Among  Simon's  pa- 
trons were  the  two  Ensigns,  men  of  fine  reputation  in  busi- 
ness, great  lovers  of  the  horse,  and  who  always  owned  a 
good  stable  of  trotters  and  race-horses.  They  are  liberal 
with  their  money,  as  I  can  bear  testimony,  as  in  the  days 
before  I  had  ever  won  first  money  with  a  trotting  horse, 
when  five  dollars  a  month  was  about  the  legitimate  size  of 
my  income,  they  sent  me  to  school  and  in  other  substantial 
ways  showed  their  kindness  of  heart  toward  me.  James 
always  drove  their  horses  and  drove  them  well.  He  is  retired 
from  the  turf,  but  is  considered  authority  on  trotting  horses 
by  every  subject  of  Queen  Victoria, 

John  Trout's  name  is  very  appropriate,  as  in  habits, 
general  disposition  etc. ,  he  puts  you  in  mind  of  a  fish  that 
is  hard  to  catch.  There  is  nothing  in  the  way  of  driving 
a  horse  from  the  tow-path  to  the  white  liouse  that  John  is 
not  prepared  at  all  times  to  take  a  hand  at.  In  a  field  of 
horses  he  is  quick  to  see  and  take  advantage  of  every  weak- 
ness on  the  part  of  his  opponents  and  can  do  more  toward 
making  a  horse  a  good  breaker  than  any  man  I  ever  saw. 
That  he  is  a  first-class  judge  of  j)ace  is  proven  by  his 
having  given  Huntress  her  three-mile  record,  which  is  best 
uj)  to  date,  and  he  rated  her  along  in  that  race  as  evenly  as 
old  Father  Time  himself  could  have  done.  Sam  Caton  is  a 
gentleman  whose  long  connection  with  the  turf  has  given 
him  a  world-wide  reputation.  His  campaign  in  1887  with 
the  Kalamazoo  stock-farm  stable  was  perhaps  his  most  brill- 
iant effort;  in  that  year  he  won  more  races  than  any  trainer 
in  the  country;  not  only  with  old  campaigners,  but  also  with 


LIFE   WITH   THE   TKOTTEES.  293 

colts  and  green  horses,  and  by  so  doing  refuted  the  oft- 
repeated  story,  that  old  trotting-horse  trainers  were  not 
good  colt  trainers.  Sam  not  only  won  with  his  colts,  but 
kept  them  in  such  condition  that  they  made  long  cam- 
paigns—won a  lot  of  races,  and,  what  is  more,  they  came 
out  the  following  year  and  trained  on.  He  gave  Bell  Boy  a 
record  of  2:19^  as  a  three-year-old,  and  convinced  me  that 
he  is  a  wonderful  horse  from  the  fact  that  his  training  was 
very  limited;  his  owner  using  him  almost  entirely  for 
breeding  purposes. 

"  Tobe ''  Broderick  is  considered  one  of  the  shining  lights 
at  the  huckleberry  shows,  he  having  made  the  world' s  record 
of  2:07^^  over  a  half-mile  track  with  his  celebrated  pacer  You 
Bet,  and  running  mate  Gooseberry  John.  I  think,  taking 
into  consideration  the  difference  between  a  mile  and  a  half- 
mile  track,  that  this  is  as  good  a  XDerformance  as  any  team 
ever  made  that  way  rigged.  Hawley  Cole,  by  the  fashion 
of  his  garments  may  ante-date  the  war,  but  his  training, 
driving  and  management  of  trotting  horses  is  after  the  most 
approved  latter-day  methods.  He  formerly  devoted  a  part 
of  his  time  to  his  large  railroad  interests,  but  the  interstate 
law  interfering  with  his  usefulness,  he  now  puts  in  all  his 
energy  and  talent  to  training  a  public  stable.  That  he  gives 
his  patrons  satisfaction  is  proven  by  the  number  of  them. 
John  Holstein  made  his  mark  in  connection  with  the 
Wood's  Hambletonian  family,  having  given  many  of  them 
their  best  records  and  campaigned  them  very  successfully. 
In  connection  with  John  I  might  relate  rather  a  strange 
accident,  something  that  I  never  saw  happen  before,  and 
one  of  the  many  proofs  of  how  uncertain  horce-racing  is. 
In  a  race  at  Utica  several  years  ago  he  was  driving  Nancy 
Hackett  in  what  would  have  been  perhaps  the  deciding  heat 
had  she  not  met  with  an  accident.  I  had  Wolford  Z.  in 
the  race,  and  after  trotting  for  the  first  three-quarters  of  a 
mile  to  beat  John  with  Hackett,  she,  without  any  apparent 
cause,  plunged  side  wise,  and  stopped  almost  instantly.  So 
sudden  was  it,  that  I  pulled  my  horse  up,   thinking  that 


294  -  LIFE   WITH  THE  TROTTERS. 

sometliing  terrible  had  happened,  and  sure  enough  she  had 
dislocated,  as  we  afterward  found  out,  the  main  bone  in  her 
hip,  and  had  to  be  destroyed.  John  had  two  heats  won,  and 
every  horse  beaten  sure  at  the  three-quarter  pole  in  the  third 
heat;  his  mare  was  well  backed  in  the  pool-box,  and  then  all 
his  chances  were  destroyed  by  this  inexj)licable  accident. 

Johnny  Grier  comes  under  the  head  of  the  light  weights. 
I  think  he  does  not  weigh  over  120  j^ounds,  but  I  don't  see 
as  that  is  a  drawback  to  him,  as  he  has  made  some  as  good 
finishes  as  heavier  men  could  have  done  in  the  same  position. 
Jim  Boyd  may  surely  be  called  an  all-around  horseman;  he 
is  a  horse  trainer,  driver,  owner,  breeder,  livery-stable 
keeper,  secretary  of  a  trotting  track,  and  of  a  breeding  as- 
sociation— surely  irons  enough  for  one  man  to  have  in  the 
fire.  With  all  this,  he  has  plenty  of  time  to  be  considerate 
and  polite  to  not  only  his  numerous  friends,  but  anyone 
who  may  have  a  chance  to  meet  him.  He  is  one  of  the  fixt- 
ures of  Milwaukee.  Woodard  &  Brasfield,  the  founders  of 
what  has  grown  to  be  a  very  large  business,  combination 
sides,  are  both  horsemen  of  rare  ability.  They  are  different 
in  disposition  and  character;  together  they  made  a  successful 
team,  and  since  they  have  separated  their  interests,  each  one 
has  shown  himself  callable  of  filling  a  place  in  the  business 
world.  Brasfield  has  been  connected  with  some  of  the  lead- 
ing breeding  farms  in  Kentucky,  having  trained  for  H.  C. 
McDowell  and  others,  and  in  fact  gave  Trinket  her  colt 
record  of  2:19|.  Woodard  &  Brasfield  once  owned  Harry 
Wilkes  and  gave  him  a  record  of  2:23^.  Woodard  is  con- 
sidered more  of  a  i)lunger  than  Brasfield,  and  any  time  that 
he  is  not  engaged  in  his  legitimate  business,  he  is  ready  to 
take  a  whirl  at  the  iDool-box  and  will  try  just  as  hard  to 
guess  the  winner  as  he  will  to  get  the  top  price  for  a  man's 
horse  that  he  is  selling. 

John  E.  Madden,  the  boy  turfman,  has  never  aspired  to 
be  a  driver,  and  I  believe  has  never  made  his  bow  in  a 
public  race,  although  in  x>rivate  training  he  has  shown 
marked  ability  as  a  horseman.     He  has  owned  some  very 


LIFE   WITH   THE  TEOTTEES.  295 

promising  animals  and  is  willing  at  all  times  to  pay  the  top 
price  for  any  tiling  that  looks  as  though  it  would  be  a  world- 
beater.  James  Boyle  dates  his  connection  with  the  Western 
turf  to  before  the  Chicago  lire,  when  such  leading  lights  as 
Harry  Holmes,  Al  Gage,  Charley  Schwartz  and  a  host  of 
others  were  out  in  force,  and  before  they  had  settled  down 
to  everyday  business.  At  this  time,  George  Mansur  was 
proprietor  of  Dexter  Park  and  Billy  Boyle  (Jim' s  brother) 
was  the  leading  secretary  of  the  country.  Since  then  he, 
too,  has  settled  down,  and  has  proven  himself  to  be  as  good 
a  business  man  as  he  was  a  secretary,  which  is  proven  by 
the  fact  of  his  having  made  a  fortune  for  himself  with  his 
chop  house  in  Chicago,  an  establisliment  that  has  attained 
more  fame  than  any  other  place  of  the  kind  in  the  country, 
and  to  which  horsemen  gravitate  as  naturally  when  in  Chi- 
cago as  they  do  to  the  quarter  stretch  when  at  a  race  track. 

George  Hayes,  made  his  star  performances  as  a  driver  in 
connection  with  Colonel  Pepper's  stables  at  Frankfort  Ky. 
In  his  management  and  driving  of  the  celebrated  mare 
Catchfly  Hayes  stamped  himself  a  trainer  of  rare  judg- 
ment and  ability,  Catchfly  being  a  mare  that  had  baffled  the 
efforts  of  a  number  of  people  to  train  and  drive.  But  Hayes 
soon  got  the  hang  of  the  mare,  and  in  his  hands  she  proved 
herself  one  of  the  few  first-class  race-horses  of  the  year,  beat- 
ing among  other  good  ones  Harry  Wilkes  in  a  race  of  five 
heats.  Hayes  is  rather  a  mild-mannered  young  man,  but 
with  plenty  of  determination,  as  was  proven  in  this  case. 

The  Coates  brothers  come  under  the  hea  d  of  gentlemen 
horsemen,  and  are,  what  I  would  call,  two  of  a  kind.  In 
ways,  looks,  disi:)Osition  and  traits,  they  are  as  near  alike  as 
a  pair  of  aces.  They  have  owned  and  raced  some  of  the  star 
performers.  Joe  always  does  the  driving  and  Arthur  at- 
tends to  the  finances  of  the  concern,  and  in  this  manner 
they  have  been  able  to  give  talent  some  i^retty  severe  blows. 
They  also  take  an  interest  in  breeding,  and  own  a  fine  prop- 
erty at  Goshen,  N.  Y.,  where  they  spend  their  time  when 
not  out  on  they  road.     They  are  both  well-educated  young 


296  LIFE  WITH   THE  TROTTERS. 

men,  and  might  be  taken  for  a  couple  of  students.  Joe 
is  pa7'ticularly  fond  of  music  and  lias  given  to  it  a  great 
deal  of  attention. 

George  Robens,  native  of  Michigan,  lias  the  distinction 
of  giving  the  record  to  the  fastest  Blue  Bull,  also  the  fastest 
three  heats  in  a  race  by  the  same  horse,  namely  George- 
town, the  pacer,  that  was  afterward  sold  to  a  foreign  market. 
George  has  been  rather  an  active  young  man,  and  while  he 
has  never  had  a  real  star  performer,  the  horses  he  has 
handled  have  always  been  used  to  the  very  best  advantage. 

Col.  George  Washington  Dickey,  a  gentleman  whose 
connection  with  the  turf  dates  back  to  the  time  that  Dan 
Mace  was  a  boy,  Mace  being  a  great  admirer  and  friend  of 
Dickey's,  is  one  of  the  heavy  weights  of  the  turf,  he  being 
without  doubt  the  best  driver  of  his  weight  known.  In  re- 
gard to  his  name,  his  j)arents  christened  him  George  Dickey, 
but  in  later  years,  as  his  character  was  fully  developed,  his 
friends  made  the  additions.  The  title  of  colonel  was  given 
to  Mr.  Dickey  on  account  of  his  bravery,  and  the  Washing- 
ton part  of  his  name  was  added  to  indicate  his  truthful- 
ness. He  was  the  son  of  a  minister,  and  was  educated  with 
the  idea  of  his  following  in  his  father' s  footsteps,  but  the 
Colonel  had  other  views,  and  struck  boldly  out  for  him- 
self on  the  turf.  He  made  his  greatest  reputation  as  a 
trainer  and  driver  of  trotting  teams  and  was  the  first  man 
to  drive  a  team  in  2:30  which  he  did  with  Jessie  Wales  and 
Darkness.  He  has  traveled  in  every  country  in  the  kno\^  n 
world  where  the  trotting  horse  is  mentioned,  counts  his 
friends  by  the  thousand,  and  is  the  man  that,  Jack  Phil- 
lips offered  to  bet,  could  borrow  $25  from  a  lamp  post  in 
any  country  in  the  world. 

George  Starr,  although  connected  with  the  turf  for  a 
number  of  years,  has  not  yet  made  his  bow  as  a  public 
trainer,  having  filled  the  position  of  second  trainer  to  Budd 
Doble  for  a  number  of  years  with  the  idea  of  fitting  himself 
thoroughly  for  the  position  of  a  public  trainer  and  driver. 
In  doing  this  I  think  he  has  showed  commendable  wisdom, 


LIFE  WITH  THE  TROTTERS.  297 

that  is,  in  first  tlioroughlj  learning  liis  trade  before  he 
hangs  out  his  shingle.  He  has  already  to  my  knowledge 
refused  some  very  tempting  offers  to  train  and  ^rive  differ- 
ent stables  of  horses,  thinking  it  better  to  first  comx^letely 
master  every  part  of  the  business;  I  think  this  is  a  plan 
that  every  young  man  should  follow.  After  you  have  made 
up  your  mind  that  you  want  to  make  training  and  driving 
horses  your  business,  consult  with  whoever  you  think  is  the 
best  trainer  in  the  land,  take  his  advice  whether  you  are 
fitted  for  the  work,  then  place  yourself  under  his  charge 
and  every  day  try  to  learn  all  you  can  in  regard  to  the 
details  of  the  business.  In  that  way  you  Avill  have  a  chance 
to  not  only  use  your  own  judgment,  but  you  will  obtain  the 
benefit  of  your  emxDloyer's  education  and  experience.  All 
the  success  that  I  have  had  in  life  in  my  business  I  thank 
my  early  em^^loyers  for.  Mace  took  as  much  jjains  to  teach 
me  how  to  train  and  drive  a  horse  as  any  school  teacher 
would  have  taken  with  a  boy  if  he  had  known  he  would 
have  lived  to  be  President  of  the  United  States.  It  would 
have  been  impossible  for  a  man  to  have  taken  more  interest 
in  a  scholar  than  Mr.  Simmons  did  in  me,  and  when  I  drove 
the  first  horse  for  him  in  public  races,  he  seemed  to  take  a 
greater  j^leasure  in  making  me  a  competent  driver  tlian  he 
did  in  having  the  horse  win.  When  George  Starr  offers  his 
services  to  the  public  I  shall  be  willing  to  indorse  him,  and 
think  he  will  i^rove  that  my  theory  about  learning  to  be  a 
horse  trainer  is  correct.  In  size,  ajppearance  and  manners, 
he  looks  and  acts  more  like  h's  employer,  Mr.  Doble,  than 
any  man  I  ever  saw.  George  perhaps  has  a  little  the  advan- 
tage of  Budd  in  years,  being  somewhat  younger,  but  has 
those  same  careful  methods  in  his  character  that  have  made 
Budd  in  my  oi)inion  the  greatest  horse  trainer  I  ever  saw. 


CHAPTER    XII. 

How  to  train  the  trotter  and  keep  him  in  good  fettle — His  mouth  the  first  thing 
to  be  looked  after — An  experience  with  Fanny  Witherspoon — Don't  pull  a 
horse,  and  he  will  not  pull  you — Overfeeding  and  its  consequences — Give 
water  at  all  times — The  groom  must  be  neat  in  appearance  and  not  a  drink- 
ing man — Too  many  blankets  a  bad  idea — Some  points  about  boots — The 
use  of  pads  and  sponges — Mambrino  Sparkle's  bad  feet,  and  the  great  races 
she  trotted — Why  clipping  is  beneficial — Work  in  the  early  spring — Teach- 
ing trotters  to  score  well — Sulkies,  road-carts,  timing- watches,  etc. 

The  first  tliiug  in  training  a  horse  is  to  make  a  careful 
study  of  the  animal,  learning  all  his  peculiarities,  faults, 
weaknesses,  habits,  etc.  I  think  one  vital  mistake  made  by 
men  training  horses  is  that  they  do  not  seem  to  think  that 
horses  are  made  of  flesh  and  blood,  and  very  nearly  human 
in  all  their  ways. 

The  first  thing  to  be  looked  after  in  a  horse,  is  his  mouth, 
for  two  reasons:  In  the  first  place,  the  mouth  is  used  for  a 
double  purpose,  to  drive  the  horse  by,  and  to  eat,  two  very 
essential  things  in  a  race-horse.  In  a  race,  if  you  beat  the 
other  man  a  head,  you  win  the  money;  if  he  beats  you  a  head, 
he  takes  the  money,  so  that  your  whole  year' s  work  may  be 
decided  for  or  against  you  by  the  length  of  a  horse's  head. 
If  two  horses  are  in  a  race,  equal  in  every  particular  as  to 
speed,  etc.,  and  one  of  them  is  a  disagreeable  driver  and 
can  not  be  entirely  controlled,  and  the  other  one  i)erfectly 
controllable  to  tlie  wilUof  his  driver,  easy  to  manage,  and 
quiciv  to  respond  to  every  touch  of  the  bit,  that  horse  will 
win  tlie  money  every  time.  I  simply  state  this  to  show  that 
in  horse  training  it  is  the  small  things  that  make  or  unmake 
the  success  of  the  liorse  and  trainer.    Some  horses  naturally 

(298) 


LIFE  WITH   THE  TEOTTEES.  299 

have  a  better  mouth  than  others,  but  with  time,  care  and 
attention  any  liorse's  month,  no  matter  how  bad,  can  be 
improved.  My  idea  is  first  to  see  that  the  horse's  teeth  are 
in  pioper  condition.  Unless  you  are  a  veterinary  dentist 
yourself  do  not  undertake  to  lix  his  mouth.  Get  the  best 
veterinary  dentist  you  know  of,  tell  him  if  the  horse  lias  any 
peculiarities  about  driving  on  one  rein,  lugging  or  pulling 
in  any  disagreeable  manner,  and  if  the  dentist  understands 
his  business  and  the  habits  are  caused  by  any  trouble  with 
his  teeth  or  mouth  he  will  be  able  to  remove  the  cause  and 
in  time  the  horse  will  forget  his  bad  habits.  Horses  are  a 
good  deal  like  men  about  that,  it  takes  them  a  good  bit 
longer  to  forget  a  bad  habit  than  it  does  to  learn  one,  so 
that  it  sometimes  requires  a  great  deal  of  ptatience  to  over- 
come a  slight  fault. 

After  the  teeth  and  mouth  are  properly  looked  after,  the 
next  thing  in  line  are  the  bits.  My  experience  has  been  that 
no  horse  can  be  successfully  driven  with  anything  like  a 
severe  bit.  I  never  saw  one  that  was  even  broken  of  the 
habit  of  pulling  in  that  way.  If  you  put  a  severe  bit  in  a 
horse's  mouth  and  -pull  on  it  it  makes  the  horse  mad  and 
irritates  him ;  the  further  you  drive  him  and  the  harder  you 
pull  him,  the  more  he  will  pull  against  it.  When  I  was  a 
boy  almost  every  trotter  I  saw  would  pull  in  a  disagreeable 
manner  when  being  driven  at  top  si^eed.  At  the  present 
time  I  can  not  think  of  one  horse  that  is  anything  like  first 
class,  that  pulls  enough  to  make  it  disagreeable  for  a  man 
at  any  time.  A  great  many  people  think  that  every  horse 
should  be  driven  with  an  overcheck.  I  can  remember  when 
I  had  the  same  opinion  myself.  I  am  now  satisfied  that  it 
is  a  serious  mistake.  There  are  a  great  many  hoi  ses  that 
will  not  take  kindly  to  an  overcheck,  and  if  you  insist  on 
using  it  on  them  it  will  sooner  or  later  spoil  the  horse's  dis- 
position to  a  great  extent.  The  p)lainest  case  of  the  kind 
that  ever  came  into  my  hands  was  Fanny  Witherspoon.  She 
had  been  trained  for  a  number  of  years  and  always  with  an 
overcheck.   I  uiyself  trained  her  for  over  a  year  in  the  same 

20 


300  LIFE  WITH  THE  TROTTEKS. 

manner,  but  with  very  little  satisfaction,  as  she  seemed  to 
continually  have  trouble  with  her  mouth.  In  talking  the 
matter  over  with  my  friend  Hickok,  he  advised  that  I  try 
her  with  a  check  bit,  side  check,  and  nose-band  attachment. 
I  did  so,  and  had  Mr.  J,  H.  Fenton  make  me  a  bridle  ac- 
cording to  Hickolv  s  suggestion,  the  same  as  the  one  he  wore 
on  St.  Julien,  and  in  the  shortest  time  imaginable  the  mare 
showed  a  very  marked  improvement  in  h  r  driving.  I  think 
a  horse  should  never  be  checked  on  the  bit  you  drive  him 
with;  always  have  an  extra  check  bit  in  his  mouth.  For 
bits,  I  find  that  most  all  horses  drive  well  on  an  ordinary 
size  snaffle  bit  covered  with  rubber.  I  do  not  mean  what 
they  call  patent  bits  with  guttapercha  covering.  I  take  a 
steel  bit,  have  it  nickel-plated  to  prevent  it  from  rusting, 
take  a  p)iece  of  white  rubber  hose,  and  have  my  harness- 
maker  cover  the  bit  with  it.  Manufacturers  tell  me  there  is 
nothing  about  the  white  hose  that  is  disagreeable  to  the  taste 
of  the  horse,  while  there  is  in  the  patent  covering.  I  also 
cover  the  check  bit  in  the  same  manner.  A  great  many 
j)eople  who  break  colts,  I  imagine,  do  not  realize  how  inj- 
portant  a  part  this  is  in  a  horse's  education,  as  a  majority  of 
them  never  drive  a  race  in  their  lives.  They  seem  to  think 
that  if  the  colt  is  broken  so  he  won't  jumj)  the  fence  or  Idck 
you  out  of  the  sulky  that  is  all  that  is  necessary.  Years 
ago,  when  I  was  a  boy  and  lived  on  a  faim  I  saw  more  jDains 
taken  with  a  hundred  dollar  colt  in  breaking  him  than  I  see 
now  sometimes  with  a  colt  that  the  owner  expects  to  get 
thousands  of  dollars  for.  I  have  found  that  with  horses  that 
have  disagreeable  habits  of  pulling  on  one  rein,  etc.,  it  is  a 
grand  idea  to  put  a  bitting  harness  on  them,  and  turn  them 
loose  in  a  large  stall  or  j)addock.  Do  not  check  them  high 
enough  to  make  them  fight  the  bit,  nor  leave  it  on  long  enough 
to  tire  them.  The  oftener  you  put  it  on  in  that  manner,  the 
better.  It  is  an  easy  matter  in  winter  when  they  are  not  in 
training  to  put  it  on  them  a  couple  of  times  a  day. 

We  have  now  discussed  the  pulling  question  from  the 
horse's  standpoint;  the  other  side,  the  trainer  and  driver, 


LIFE  WITH  THE  TROTTERS.  301 

I  often  think,  cuts  a  very  important  figure.  I  am  sure  that 
not  one  man  in  a  hundred  driving  a  trotter  ever  realizes 
liow  hard  he  pulls  the  horse.  A  good  way  to  find  that  out 
is  for  a  man  to  step  into  some  gymnasium  where  they 
have  a  pulling  machine  and  j)ull  against  it  about  as  hard  as 
he  does  a  horse  in  a  race,  and  in  that  way,  if  he  is  in  the 
habit  of  i)ulling  his  horse  hard,  he  may  learn  something 
that  Avill  be  to  his  advantage.  I  drive  all  my  horses  with 
holders  on  the  reins,  and  I  think  no  man  should  ever  drive 
in  a  race  without  them.  A  great  many  say:  "  Why,  if  your 
horse  doesn  t  pull,  do  you  use  holders  ? ' '  For  the  reason 
that  I  can  drive  a  horse  easier  to  myself  and  him  also  with 
holders  than  I  can  without.  If  you  drive  the  horse  without 
holders  you  will  have  to  grasp  your  hands  so  closely  about 
the  reins  that  it  will  stop  the  circulation  so  that  before  you 
have  gone  a  half-mile  you  will  have  to  change  the  x)osition 
of  your  hands;  then  if  the  horse  makes  a  break  you  are 
obliged  to  take  a  wrap  on  the  reins  before  you  can  catch 
him.  You  do  not  have  to  pull  a  horse  any  harder  with 
holders  than  is  necessary,  and  if  it  comes  to  a  desperate 
finish  where  he  makes  a  break  the  advantage  is  all  on 
your  side  instead  of  his.  In  working  your  horse,  alvfays 
try  to  see  how  little  you  can  possibly  pull  him,  as  it  will 
help  make  him  a  better  race-horse  and  you  a  much  better 
driver. 

In  the  training  of  a  horse  to  bring  him  to  his  highest  state 
of  condition  what  he  eats  and  drinks  cuts  a  very  important 
figure.  There  are  some  horses  that  from  one  cause  or 
another,  Mill  not  eat  enough  to  stand  the  severe  x)repara- 
tion,  but  as  a  rule  I  think  most  horses  eat  too  much.  I 
think  eating  gets  to  be  a  habit  with  some  of  them,  and  a 
bad  habit  at  that.  If  a  horse  is  inclined  to  be  "washy," 
sweat  freely  and  lose  his  flesh,  that  horse,  I  think,  needs 
more  feed  than  one  of  the  opposite  disposition.  While 
Rarus  was  a  delicate-looking  horse  and  people  often  asked 
me  if  he  was  a  good  feeder,  he  Avas  the  greatest  feeder  for  a 
race-horse  I  ever  saw.     Through  all  his  severe  campaigns 


802  LIFE  WITH  THE  TROTTEKS. 

witli  me  I  never  saw  him  wlien  he  was  not  ready  to  eat,  and 
in  the  hardest  part  of  the  season  I  fed  him  about  fifteen 
pounds  of  oats  a  day.  In  their  stomachs  horses  differ  more 
from  the  human  being  than  perha^os  in  any  other  part  of 
their  physical  structure.  A  man  in  the  course  of  tAventy- 
four  hours  will  take  into  his  stomach  more  different  kinds 
and  sorts  of  food  than  a  horse  would  in  a  lifetime,  and  for 
that  reason,  I  think  what  a  horse  does  take  has  more  effect 
on  him  than  it  otherwise  would.  Whatever  a  horse  eats 
should  be  of  the  cleanest  and  best.  I  think  on  an  average 
that  ten  pounds  of  oats  a  day  with  a  fair  amount  of  hay, 
is  enough  for  a  horse  to  be  trained  on.  I  think  that  all 
horses  in  the  training  season  should  have  plenty  of  grass. 
In  winter,  I  like  carrots  in  small  quantities,  and  for  a  change 
boiled  oats  have  proved  themselves  a  very  satisfactory  food 
to  me.  Some  peoiDle  say:  "What  about  bran?"  I  am  a 
good  deal  like  Dr.  Weldon  about  that;  sawdust  will  answer 
the  purpose  Just  as  well,  and  it  is  a  good  deal  cheaper. 

After  deciding  what  to  feed  the  horse,  next  comes  how 
to  feed  him,  This  depends  a  good  deal  upon  the  horse.  If 
he  is  a  good  feeder  my  idea  is  to  feed  him  often,  and  a 
small  quantity  at  a  time.  In  this  way  you  get  the  greatest 
amount  of  good  out  of  the  smallest  amount  of  food.  When 
you  take  into  consideration  the  size  of  the  horse's  stomach 
and  extraordinary  strain  that  is  j)ut  on  every  part  of  a 
horse  in  a  race,  you  can  plainly  see  that  with  an  overloaded 
stomach  you  are  liable  to  meet  with  very  serious  consequen- 
ces. I  think  a  great  many  cases  where  horses  dro}:*  dead 
in  harness  are  due  to  some  derangement  of  the  stomach. 
In  feeding  a  horse  ten  i^ounds  of  oats  a  clay  I  would  suggest 
to  have  it  divided  in  not  less  thtm  four  feeds  of  equal  pro- 
portion. Never  give  a  horse  his  hay  and  oats  at  one 
time,  for  if  he  is  a  free  feeder  he  will  be  sure  to  gorge  him- 
self more  or  less.  As  to  water,  I  think  every  horse  should 
have  all  he  wants  and  at  all  times.  A  man  says:  "Why,  will 
you  give  your  horse  water  before  a  lace?"  Yes,  before 
the  race,   in  the  race,  and  after  the  race  and  any  other 


LIFE   WITH   THE   TROTTERS.  303 

lime  the  horse  wants  to  drink.  I  have  been  tokl  by 
people  who  have  made  a  study  of  it  that  thirst  in  an 
animal  is  one  of  the  most  cruel  tortures  that  can  be 
applied.  I  once  had  a  most  interesting  conversation  with 
a  man  who  had  made  the  taming  of  wild  animals  a  lifetime 
study,  and  he  told  me  that  the  severest  punishment  that 
could  be  aj)i)lied  to  animals  was  to  i)ut  them  in  a  warm 
room  until  they  became  thirsty,  and  that  treatment  would 
subdue  the  animal  when  nothing  else  w^ould.  In  my  boy- 
hood days  I  knew  a  man  who  was  a  rather  strange  character; 
he  was  a  crank,  the  neighbors  said,  on  training  horses. 
His  way  of  breaking  a  balky  horse  was,  when  he  refused 
to  draw  the  load,  take  him  out  of  the  harness  and  tie  him 
up  where  he  could  get  nothing  to  drink.  When  he  thought 
the  prisoner  was  in  condition  to  aj)preciate  a  good  drink 
of  water  he  would  take  him  out  and  put  him  to  the  load 
again,  give  him  a  few  swallows  of  water  and  ask  him  to 
work.  If  he  did  so,  he  was  given  all  he  wanted  to  drink; 
if  he  did  not  work  he  was  allowed  to  go  without,  and  I 
have  often  heard  the  man  say  that  he  had  never  come  across 
a  horse  that  could  not  be  conquered  in  that  wa}' . 

In  training  a  horse,  his  system  will  become  more  or  less 
fevered  or  dry  from  constant  sweating  and  scraping  and  he 
will  naturally  take  more  fluid  into  his  stomach  than  he 
would  under  other  conditions.  When  I  say  give. your  horse 
all  the  water  he  wants  before  the  race  I  do  not  mean  that 
you  shall  tie  him  u^)  where  he  can  not  get  a  drink  for  five  or 
six.  hours  on  a  hot  day  in  a  Vv^arm  stall,  and  then  take  him 
to  the  i^ump  and  give  him  all  he  wants.  What  I  mean  is  to 
give  him  water  often,  and  in  that  way  he  will  take  but  a 
small  quantity  at  a  time.  I  think  it  a  bad  idea  to  set  a  i^ail 
of  water  in  a  horse's  stall  and  leave  it  there  until  he  has 
-drank  it  uj).  Physicians  tell  me  there  is  nothing  that  will 
absorb  bad  odors  and  become  unhealthy  quicker  than  water. 
I  am  satisfied  from  my  personal  experience  that  good  water 
is  absolutely  necessary  to  train  a  horse  to  jDerfection.  Some 
of  the  best  j)oints   that  I  ever  got  about  horse  training  I 


304  LIFE   VriTII   THE   TIIOTTEKS. 

liave  learned  from  ph.j'^sicians  and  men  who  have  trained 
people  for  athletic  feats  where  it  required  the  highest 
standard  of  x)hysical  develoi^ment  to  succeed.  They  tell  me 
that  the  foundation  to  build  on  when  training  a  man  is  to  hrst 
have  his  .blood  in  perfect  condition;  then  the  stomach, 
and  if  he  is  a  well-bred  and  game  man  the  rest  will  come 
after.  That  is  my  idea  about  a  race-horse.  If,  from  any 
symptoms  you  may  see  in  your  horse  you  think  the  blood 
or  stomach  is  out  of  order  get  the  best  vetei  inary  surgeon 
you  know  of  to  take  charge  of  the  case.  Do  not  undertake  to 
doctor  him  yourself  unless  you  consider  yourself  a  first- 
class  veterinary,  I  am  of  the  opinion  that  no  man  ever  lived 
who  was  an  expert  at  more  than  one  trade.  We  often  see 
a  great  many  things  advertised  as  being  good  for  this  and 
that  ailment  of  the  horse.  When  I  read  them  over  I 
always  think  of  what  my  colored  boy  "  Senator  "  once  said 
to  me.  On  returning  home  from  a  trip  he  told  me  that  one 
of  the  horses  had  been  slightly  ill  and  he  had  given  him 
some  medicine  out  of  a  certain  bottle  that  he  had  found  in  the 
chest.  I  asked  him  why  he  had  given  the  horse  the  medicine, 
and  he  replied  it  was  i)rinted  on  the  bottle  that  it  Avas  good 
for  a  horse,  and  he  didn't  suppose  anybody  would  print  a 
lie;  but  as  the  horse  died,  Senator  lost  confidence  in  pub- 
lished statements.  No  matter  how  smart  a  man  is,  no  mat- 
ter how  well  he  may  have  learned  his  particular  trade, 
nothing  but  constant,  every  day  j)ractical  experience  will 
make  him  an  expert  in  his  chosen  profession.  Tliat  is  why 
I  say  never  call  in  a  blacksmith,  no  matter  how  well  he  can 
make  a  horseshoe,  if  you  want  the  horse  doctored. 

After  having  made  a'  perfect  study  of  the  horse' s  habits, 
how  to  feed  and  manage  him  in  the  stable,  etc.,  you  should 
by  this  time  have  some  jDlan  as  to  how  you  think  he  ought 
to  be  worked  or  trained.  Never  start  in  to  train  a  horse 
without  liaving  some  idea  in  your  mind  as  to  how  you  are 
going  to  do  it.  That  is,  about  how  much  work  he  ought  to 
have,  what  kind  of  work,  whether  fast  or  slow,  on  the  track 
or  on  the  road.    When  you  commence  training  a  horse,  make 


LIFE   WITH  THE  TROTTEKS.  305 

sure  that  you  have  a  first-class  man  to  groom  him.  This  is 
the  part  of  the  training  to  which  all  successful  trainers  have 
given  a  great  deal  of  attention.  If  a  young  man  applies  to 
Mr.  Doble  for  a  position  to  rub  a  trotter  he  would  have  to 
come  as  well  recommended  to  gain  the  position  as  a  man 
would  to  get  a  placeof  trust  in  a  gentleman' shanking  hoase; 
and  why  should  he  not?  When  you  x)lace  a  trotter  in 
charge  of  a  groom  you  not  only  have  the  value  of  the  horse 
at  stake  to  a  large  extent,  but  you  also  have  the  money 
that  you  may  have  invested  in  races,  either  in  entrance 
money  or  in  wagers.  'No  matter  how  well  you  train  the 
horse  or  how  carefully  you  drive  him,  if  the  groom, 
from  ignorance  or  carelessness,  neglects  his  part  of  the 
business  you  can  not  hope  to  have  more  than  a  partial 
success. 

In  selecting  a  groom,  never  under  any  circumstance  take 
one  addicted  to  drinking  liquor.  Their  mode  of  life  and 
temx)tations  about  a  race-track,  will  certainly  make  them 
drink  more,  and  I  have  one  absolute  rule,  and  that  is  I  will 
not  keep  a  man  about  me  a  moment  after  he  has  shown  a 
disposition  to  drink.  The  more  intelligent,  the  better  be- 
haved, the  better  dressed  the  groom  is  just  so  much  better 
will  he  take  care  of  your  horse.  People  say:  "  What  has 
the  dress  to  do  with  it? "  If  a  man  is  neat  and  tidy  about 
his  own  personal  appearance  he  will  be  corresiDondingly  neat 
about  his  horse  and  tools.  Trainers  and  owners  often  make 
a  mistake  by  thinking  to  emi^loy  a  man  Avith  all  those  traits, 
honesty,  industry,  sobriety  and  brains  enough  to  be  a  good 
horse  rubber,  for  small  wages.  That  is  impossible.  I  once 
knew  a  man  who  had  a  good  horse  and  he  told  me  with 
seeming  X3ride  that  lie  only  gave  the  boy  fifteen  dollars  a 
month  for  rubbing  him.  The  horse  caught  cold  one  day  from 
being  carelessly  neglected  by  the  groom,  and  the  owner  lost 
the  use  of*  him  for  that  season.  In  talking  the  matter  over 
with  me  he  said  he  thought  the  boy  should  have  known 
better.  I  told  him  he  must  not  expect  to  hire  a  man  to  do 
much  thinking  for  fifteen  dollars  a  month.     I  have  seen 


306  LIFE   WITH  THE  TROTTEKS. 

owners  trust  an  ignorant  man  with  a  $15,000  horse  where 
they  would  not  trust  the  same  man  with  a  ten- dollar  bill. 
Few  people  realizehow  important  apart  the  rubber  occupies 
in  training  a  horse,  or  how  many  hours  he  has  to  be  on  duty. 
In  the  actual  training  season  the  rubber  does  not  have  one 
moment  that  he  can  call  his  own.  A  man  that  works  by  the 
day  at  ordinary  labor  puts  in  eight  or  ten  hours,  the  balance 
of  the  twenty-four  hours  is  his  own.  Not  so  mtli  the  rubber; 
he  is  on  duty  the  whole  of  the  twenty -four  hours,  sometimes 
having  bareh^  time  to  eat  his  meals.  People  say:  "What 
has  he  to  do  all  that  time? "  His  duties  are  to  take  care  of 
his  horse,  stable,  harness,  boots,  blankets,  sulky,  whips  and 
a  thousand  and  one  things  that  a  man  needs  in  training  a 
horse.  Then  when  the  night  comes,  instead  of  going  off  and 
having  a  good  time  with  the  boys,  he  has  to  stay  in  the 
stable  and  sleep  in  the  stall  with  his  horse  for  fear  of  fire 
and  other  accidents  which  might  hapi^en  if  the  horse  was 
left  alone.  I  think  such  men  as  "Old  Charlie,"  who  took 
care  of  Goldsmith  Maid;  "Lucy  Jimmy";  Little  Dave,  who 
took  care  of  Earns  and  Johnston  for  me;  Bill,  the  rubber  of 
St.  Julien,  and  a  number  of  other  men  whom  I  could  name, 
deserve  as  much  credit  for  the  success  of  the  horses  they 
cared  for  as  the  men  who  drove  them.  No  one  realized  this 
fact  more  than  Mace;  he  took  better  care  of  his  rubbers, 
gave  them  better  wages  and  was  kinder  to  his  men  than  any 
other  trainer  that  I  ever  saw. 

The  next  thing  in  order  is  the  tools  to  train  your  horse 
with.  Here  again  the  trainer  wants  to  be  more  than  careful. 
Do  not  fill  your  stable  uj)  with  worthless  traps  that  you  have 
no  use  for,  as  the  care  of  them  will  only  take  time  and 
trouble.  In  regard  to  blankets,  I  often  think  they  are  a 
nuisance;  not  but  that  I  think  a  horse  wants  a  reasonable 
amount  of  clothing,  but  I  have  seen  horses  in  the  hottest 
part  of  the  year  with  blankets  enough  on  them  to  make  them 
uncomfortable  in  winter.  I  have  seen  the  same  horse  in 
winter  turned  out  in  the  coldest  weather  with  nothing  to 
protect  him  except  his  coat  of  hair — that' s  what  I  call  the 


LIFE   WITH  THE  TEOTTEES,  307 

two  extremes.  My  idea  is  to  have  a  few  blankets  and  have 
them  made  very  light.  Bandages  are  another  thing  which  I 
think  are  greatly  abused.  Why  a  man  will  bind  up  a  horse's 
leg  with  a  flannel  bandage  and  leave  it  there  all  night  is 
something  which  I  could  never  find  out.  If  you  try  the  same 
treatment  on  yourself  and  go  to  bed  I  guarantee  you  won't 
rest  well.  If  your  horse  has  a  bad  leg,  attended  with  fever 
and  inflammation,  a  bandage  saturated  in  some  cooling  lotion 
might  have  a  beneficial  effect  in  case  it  is  not  left  on  too 
long.  I  think  that  between  heats  in  a  race,  or  after  severe 
work,  if  some  light,  stimulating  liniment  or  wash  is  applied 
and  the  bandage  is  not  put  on  too  tight,  it  acts  as  a  prevent- 
ive against  soreness  in  those  particular  parts. 

In  regard  to  harness,  almost  every  trainer  has  different 
ideas.  A  great  many  use  what  is  called  the  single-strap 
harness.  I  have  tried  them  and  do  not  like  them,  as  they 
lire  almost  sure  to  chafe  the  horse.  Whatever  harness  you 
use  be  sure  that  there  is  none  but  the  best  of  leather  used  in 
the  making  of  it..  I)on't  buy  a  ready-made  harness  for  your 
horse,  as  in  that  case  nine  times  out  of  ten  you  will  not  be 
able  to  make  it  fit  him.  If  your  harness-maker  is  a  mechanic 
he  can  measure  your  horse  and  make  the  harness  fit  him  as 
well  as  Joe  Day,  the  ' '  swell ' '  tailor  of  Chicago,  could  fit 
Berry  Wall  with  a  suit  of  clothes.  Be  sure  and  have  a  good 
strong  saddle  and  an  extra  wide  soft  girth,  as  there  is  where 
most  of  the  strain  comes  on  a  track  harness.  Put  some 
secure  fastening  on  the  check  hook  so  that  your  check  can 
not  fly  off;  don't  trust  to  a  cork,  as  that  will  be  sure  to  give 
way  at  the  critical  moment.  The  bridle,  another  very 
essential  part,  if  with  blinds,  wants  to  set  close  to  the  horse's 
head.  Have  the  holes  punched  in  it  close  together,  then  you 
can  make  it  fit  well  without  pinching  the  horse.  Have  the 
reins  made  the  right  length,  and  don' t  have  three  or  four 
yards  of  leather  hanging  doAvn  behind  the  sulky.  Have  the 
holders  on  the  reins  good  length  and  wide,  and  be  sure  that 
you  have  them  in  exactly  the  right  place,  so  that  if  the  horse 
from  any  cause,  either  from  breaking  or  otherwise,  should 


308  LIFE   WITH   THE  TROTTERS. 

take  an  extra  hold  of  the  bit  you  are  ready  and  in  the  right 
position  to  handle  him  Avith  ease. 

Now  we  come  to  what  I  call  the  mechanical  part  of  the 
horse's  training,  that  is  the  boots  and  shoeing.  Here  again 
I  consider  this  a  vital  part  of  the  outfit.  A  man  to  be  a  good 
maker  of  horseboots  has  got  to  be  a  natural  mechanic.  It 
takes  a  very  much  better  mechanic  to  make  a  boot  to  fit  a  horse 
properly  than  it  does  to  make  boots  for  the  human  race. 
There  has  been  a  great  deal  of  time  and  skill  expended  by 
people  in  trying  to  invent  boots  to  imx3rove  the  sjoeed  of 
horses,  and  of  course  out  of  all  this  amount  of  exertion  we 
have  a  few  really  valuable  articles.  A  great  many  men  object 
to  boots  upon  a  horse,  say  they  are  a  nuisance,  and  that  if 
the  horse  can  not  trot  without  them,  let  him  go.  A  horse 
may  go  for  a  month  or  a  year  and  never  hit  himself,  and 
then  some  day  he  may  step  in  a  hole  or  some  other  accident 
befall  him,  and  for  the  want  of  a  boot  in  the  proper  place 
ruin  him  as  a  race-horse.  A  good  deal  can  be  determined  in 
•regard  to  what  boots  a  horse  needs  by  his  general  gait  and 
formation.  No  horse  should  ever  be  driven  without  shin- 
boots  on  the  hind  legs.  Very  few,  if  any,  horses  can  go 
without  scalpers.  I  think  it  absolutely  necessary  that  a 
horse  should  have  quarter  boots.  We  often  have  a  great 
deal  of  trouble  getting  quarter  boots  to  properly  fit  a  horse. 
Unless  they  do  fit  you  are  apt  to  get  your  horse  chafed  and 
sore,  and  this  will  cause  you  no  end  of  trouble.  I  find  J. 
H.  Fenton'  s  No.  202  quarter  boot  very  satisfactory  in  most 
cases.  Some  horses  wear  knee  and  arm  boots,  a  few  Avear 
elboAV  boots,  and  still  others  have  to  wear  AA-hat  is  called  a 
brisket  pad,  and  if  a  horse  shows  a  disposition  to  hit  him- 
self in  any  place  the  first  thing  to  do  is  to  have  him  properly 
booted.  After  a  horse  has  hurt  himself  a  feAv  times  he  gets 
timid  and  won' t  try  to  extend  himself.  In  having  your  boots 
made,  use  nothing  but  the  very  best  quality  of  leather  and 
Avork  and  be  sure  above  all  things,  that  they  fit  the  horse 
that  you  Avant  them  for.  Never  undertake  to  train  several 
different  horses  Avith  one  set  of  boots;  if  you  do,  it  will  prove 


LIFE  WITH  THE  TEOTTEES.  309 

unsatisfactory;  it  will  be  sure  to  spoil  the  shape  of  the  boots 
so  they  won't  fit  any  of  the  animals.  If  you  do  not  live  in 
a  town  where  there  is  a  first-class  boot  or  harness  maker 
and  want  either  one  of  those  articles,  or  in  fact  anything 
that  ai)pertains  to  a  race-horse  in  the  way  of  tools,  you  can 
write  to  Fenton  &  Co.,  of  Chicago,  give  them  your  order, 
and  you  will  be  sure  of  getting  the  best  goods  in  the  market, 
at  a  moderate  price  and  with  the  least  possible  trouble 

Next  we  come  to  the  shoeing.  So  many  older,  smarter,  bet- 
ter educated  men  than  myself  have  written,  lectured  and  said 
so  much  about  shoeing  trotting  horses  that  I  approach  the 
subject  with  very  little  confidence  in  being  able  to  give  it  any 
new  light.  Theories  I  find  to  be  all  very  well  in  books, 
new^spapers,  lectures,  etc.,  but  when  those  same  theories 
are  put  into  actual  practice  they  develope  some  unlooked- 
for  w^eakness  which  lets  the  wdiole  structure  fall  to  the 
ground.  The  same  I  think,  can  truthfully  be  said  in  reg.ird 
to  shoeing  a  trotter.  Any  knowledge  that  I  have  in  the 
matter  I  have  gained  from  actual  practice,  together  with  hints 
and  pointers  from  men  like  Mr.  Robert  Bonner  and  a  few 
others  I  could  name  wdio  have  made  a  lifetime  study  of  the 
matter.  The  first  thing  to  be  decided  upon  is  how  little  weight 
you  can  j)ossible  use  in  the  horse' s  shoe  to  protect  the  foot 
and  at  the  same  time -balance  the  horse  so  he  will  be  able  to 
go  at  his  highest  rate  of  speed  on  a  trot.  What  makes  it 
more  difficult  than  anything  else  to  give  rules  to  shoe  a 
horse  by  is  the  fact  that  no  two  horses  can  be  shod  alike. 
All  horses  are  formed  differently,  gaited  differentlj^,  and 
have  different  dispositions.  In  all  the  great  number  of 
horses  that  I  have  had  I  can  not  now  remember  of  any  two 
that  I  shod  exactly  alike.  I  hardly  think  that  anyone  out- 
side of  an  expert  ever  realizes  how  much  difference  it  makes 
to  a  fast  horse  to  make  his  shoes  a  couple  of  ounces  heavier 
or  lighter,  but  I  know  plenty  of  horses  with  whom  to  take  off 
or  put  on  two  ounces  on  each  forward  foot  would  be  enough  to 
change  the  result  of  the  race.  Now  if  this  is  true,  and  I  am 
sure  that  it  is,  the  shoeing  of  the  horse  is  of  very  great  im- 


310  LIFE   WITH   THE  TEOTTEES. 

portance.  In  this  connection  toe-weights  come  in  play.  I 
would  rather  a  horse  would  go  without  the  weights  than 
with  them.  The  great  trouble  with  toe-weights  is  that  people 
use  them  when  there  is  no  necessity,  and  nine  times  out  of 
ten  have  them  heavier  than  they  need  to  be.  I  use  toe- 
weights  a  great  deal;  if  I  have  a  horse  that  has  to  wear  over 
a  fourteen-ounce  shoe,  unless  he  has  an  extremely  large 
foot,  I  put  on  a  toe-weight.  I  think  there  is  less  strain  on  a 
horse's  leg  with  a  very  light  toe-weight  and  a  light  shoe  than 
there  would  be  with  the  Aveight  of  shoe  you  would  have  to 
put  on  the  horse  without  the  toe-weight. 

There  has  been  of  late  years  a  good  deal  of  attention 
given  to  shoeing  horses  with  a  pad  made  of  leather  or  some 
other  substance,  and  the  practice  has  its  opponents  and 
advocates.  The  first  man  that  I  ever  saw  use  anything  of 
that  kind  was  Dan  Mace.  One  of  the  strong  arguments 
against  a  pad  on  a  horse' s  foot  is  that  it  is  unnatural  to  close 
up  the  bottom  of  the  foot  and  keep  the  air  and  moisture 
from  it.  Granted  this  is  so,  it  is  not  the  only  unnatural 
thing  that  we  do  with  horses  or  ourselves.  When  I  first  saw 
a  pad  in  use  it  struck  me  as  being  unnatural,  too.  I  once 
had  a  horse  sent  to  me  for  training  that  seemed  stiff  and 
sore,  and  at  the  first  glance  I  thought  he  had  been  found- 
ered. I  showed  him  to  Mace,  and  he  said:  "Bring  him 
over  to  my  shop  in  Broadway  and  I'll  show  you  what  ails 
him."  Uj)on  arriving  there  with  the  horse  Mace  ordered 
his  shoes  taken  off  in  front,  told  the  blacksmith  to  cut  out 
the  rough  sole  in  the  bottom  of  his  feet,  and  there  we  found 
what  peoi)le  term  corns;  the  whole  surface  of  this  horse's 
foot  was  bruised  and  congested  until  it  was  about  the  color 
of  a  piece  of  liver.  Upon  examining  his  hind  feet  I  dis- 
covered, much  to  my  surj)rise,  the  same  state  of  affairs. 
Mace  ordered  the  horse  sent  to  his  stable,  had  his  feet  put 
in  warm  water  for  thirty  minutes  twice  a  day  for  three  or 
four  days,  and  at  night  he  applied  a  poultice  of  boiled  tur- 
nips and  bran,  having  the  turnips  put  on  warm.  When  I 
asked  him  why  he  used  turnips  instead  of  oil-meal  he 


LIFE   WITH   THE   TEOTTERS.  311 

replied:  "Oil-meal  would  be  too  drawing,  what  you  want 
in  this  case  is  something  to  cool  the  j^arts  and  not  draw 
them."  After  a  few  days  of  this  treatment  he  took  the 
horse  to  the  shop  and  asked  me  how  much  weight  I  thought 
he  ought  to  have  in  his  shoes.  I  told  him  sixteen  ounces 
each.  He  turned  to  Charley  Huie,  the  blacksmith  (a  man 
than  whom  no  better  friend  the  trotting  horses  of  America 
ever  had),  and  told  him  to  make  a  pair  of  twelve-ounce 
shoes,  and  shoe  my  horse  with  leather  pads.  I  watched  the 
operation  closely,  and  I  think  it  has  been  of  as  much  benefit 
to  me  as  any  one  thing  I  ever  learned  about  training  hor.-es. 
After  the  foot  was  x^roperly  prei^ared  and  the  shoe  fitted, 
Huie  took  a  piece  of  soleleather  and  riveted  it  to  the  heels 
of  the  shoe  and  trimmed  it  off  the  exact  size  of  the  shoe. 
Don't  cut  your  leather  smaller  than  the  shoe;  have  it  flush 
all  the  way  around,  then  take  a  sponge  about  as  thick  as 
your  hand,  and  after  covering  the  bottom  of  the  foot  with 
tar  lay  the  sponge  on  and  nail  your  shoe  over  all.  As  near 
as  I  can  remember  that  is  about  the  way  Huie  treated  this 
particular  horse.  He  shod  him  behind  in  the  same  manner, 
and  the  result  was  so  satisfactory  to  me  that  from  that  time 
on  I  tried  it,  and  if  there  is  any  one  thing  about  shoeing  a 
horse  that  I  stand  ready  to  recommend  to  the  i)ublic  and 
horse  trainers  it  is  that  mode  of  shoeing.  You  will  find 
that  in  shoeing  a  horse  with  leather  j)ads  the  shoes  can  be 
made  from  two  to  four  ounces  lighter  than  without.  When 
you  take  into  consideration  the  fact  that  our  race-tracks  are 
made  very  hard  and  smooth,  and  see  a  horse  that  weighs 
ten  or  eleven  hundred  pounds  going  over  them  better  than 
a  2: '20  gait  you  may  be  able  to  form  some  idea  of  what  the 
concussion  to  a  horse's  foot  is.  Some  people  use  oakum 
instead  of  the  sponge.  I  like  the  sponge  best  as  it  is  more 
easily  applied  and  keeps  its  iDlace  better.  I  have  been  asked 
how  long  I  thought  it  could  be  used  on  a  horse's  foot  with- 
out detriment.  I  have  tried  it  on  horses  for  years  and  never 
yet  have  Lad  one  instance  where  I  could  find  the  least  harm 
arising  from  it.    If  I  have  a  horse  whose  feet  trouble  him 


312  LIFE  WlTii  THE  TEOTTEES. 

much  I  remove  tlie  shoes  as  often  as  twice  a  month  and 
sometimes  even  more  frequently,  and  in  that  case  try  and 
give  the  horse  a  day  off  from  his  training,  and  if  there  is  any 
fever  or  inflammation  apply  something  either  in  the  way  of 
a  lotion  or  poultice  to  counteract  the  fever. 

Among  some  of  the  notable  instances  where  I  have  shod 
horses  in  this  manner  and  jDroved  to  my  own  satisfaction 
that  it  was  a  benefit,  I  can  name  Johnston  the  pacer,  Mnnie 
K.,  Fanny  Witherspoon,  J.  Q.,  and  that  reliable  horse,  the 
book-maker's  favorite.  Protection.  The  most  marked  in- 
stance that  ever  came  under  my  hands  was  Mambrino 
Sparlde.  When  I  first  saw  this  mare  she  had  a  record  of 
2:30.  In  watching  her  I  noticed  she  showed  a  great  deal  of 
speed  and  for  a  big  mare  went  with  a  short,  jerky  gait.  I 
think  that  sometimes  we  are  attracted  toward  horses  the 
same  as  w^e  are  toward  people,  without  being  able  to  tell 
the  reason  why;  I  know  I  was  in  this  case  and  took  an 
interest  in  Sparkle  the  first  time  I  saw  her.  I  watched  her 
that  year  in  her  work  and  races,  and  w^hile  she  seemed  to 
improve  in  her  record  she  was  not,  on  the  whole,  a  very  satis- 
factory horse,  going  a  good  many  in-and-out  heats.  The 
next  year  I  had  a  better  opportunity  to  watch  her  and  I 
noticed  when  the  track  was  soft  she  would  go  fast  and  on  a 
trot,  and  when  she  struck  a  hard  track  she  shortened  up 
her  gait  and  wanted  to  run  a  good  deal.  I  made  up  my 
mind  from  this  that  her  feet  certainly  hurt  her.  The  next 
winter  she  was  offered  for  sale  and  to  the  astonishment  of 
all  I  induced  Mr.  W.  J.  Gordon  to  buy  her,  not,  however, 
until  I  had  explained  to  him  all  about  her  feet,  etc.  The 
old  heads  were  very  much  surprised  that  Mr.  Gordon 
should  buy  this  mare,  as  it  was  known  that  he  never  wiinted 
to  own  anything  but  first-class  animals.  On  taking  Sparkle 
to  Mr.  Gordon's  stable  and  having  her  feet  exa)nined  I 
found  them  very  dry  and  hard,  a  good  deal  of  fever  and 
inflammation,  and  she  acted  very  sore  on  them,  and  on  hav- 
ing the  blacksmith  shape  them,  saw  they  were  very  much 
worse  than  I  had  expected.     I  ordered  her  grain  reduced  to 


LIFE   AVITII   THE  TEOTTEES.  313 

about  one-lialf  the  usual  quantity,  and  had  Dr.  Fair  come 
out  and  look  her  over  for  me;  he  gave  her  a  coux)le  of  light 
doses  of  physic  and  a  light  blister  for  her  feet,  which  treat- 
ment we  followed  and  after  the  effects  of  the  blister  had 
worn  off  we  poulticed  her  feet  faithfully  until  the  training 
season  ox)ened.  We  then  concluded  to  use  tips  on  her,  and 
for  the  first  tw^o  months  of  her  training  she  was  shod  in 
that  way,  and  I  think  it  was  a  very  good  thing  for  her.  I 
hardly  believe  that  a  horse  can  be  shod  in  tips  and  trained 
and  trotted  over  our  hard  tracks  successfully.  At  this 
particular  time  I  was  more  anxious  to  improve  the  condi- 
tion of  Sx^arkle's  feet  than  I  was  to  train  her.  Mr.  Gordon 
has  on  his  place  a  very  fine  working  track,  and  on  this  I 
ga-ve  the  mare  most  of  her  i3reparatory  work.  "When  I 
took  her  to  the  mile  track,  I  had  the  track  especially  pre- 
pared so  as  not  to  hurt  her  feet.  All  this  time  I  kept  up  a 
constant  course  of  treatment  for  her  feet  in  the  w;iy  of 
poulticing  and  soaking  in  warm  water.  I  have  heard  a 
great  many  peoi:)le  say  that  is  a  very  wTong  idea,  constant 
poulticing  and  soaking,  but  I  notice  that  physicians  fre- 
quently cut  off  a  man' s  arm  to  save  his  life. 

I  gave  Sx^arkle  a  great  deal  of  moderate  work  and 
occasionally  brushed  her  through  the  stretch.  I  Avas  sure 
any  horse  that  had  trotted  as  well  as  I  had  seen  her  in  the 
condition  her  feet  were  in  would  certainly  go  much  better 
with  her  feet  in  an  improved  state.  In  working  Sparkle  I 
gave  her  most  of  her  exercise  to  a  road-cart,  as  I  did  not  want 
the  weight  on  her  back,  XDrefering  to  have  her  draw  it.  In 
this  case  I  was  very  fortunate  in  having  a  good  boy  to  take 
<3are  of  her.  His  turf  name  was,  I  believe,  "  Gladiator  Bill. " 
I  don't  see  why  they  called  him  this,  as  he  was  one  of  the 
most  harndess  and  peaceable  men  I  ever  met,  never  spoke  un- 
less he  was  spoken  to,  and  his  attention  to  INIambrino  Sparkle 
had  a  great  deal  to  do  with  her  subsequent  success.  Before 
the  grand  circuit  oi^ened  I  took  Sparkle  to  Pittsburgh  and 
trotted  her  in  a  race  in  the  2:19  class,  where  she  was  a  favorite 
over  the  field  in  the  betting,  but  had  to  content  herself  with 


314  LIFE  WITH   THE  TROTTEES. 

fourth  money.  After  the  race  when  I  asked  Mr.  Gordon  if 
he  was  disappointed,  he  said  no,  that  he  had  never  had  a 
great  deal  of  faith  in  her.  I  exjjlained  to  him  that  I  thought 
that  race  would  put  tlie  mare  on  edge,  and  when  she  started 
at  Detroit  against  the  same  field  of  horses  I  thought  he 
would  see  a  far  different  result.  My  prophecies  proved 
true,  as  she  won  a  well-contested  race  of  six  heats  and 
trotted  in  2:19.  In  this  race  she  wore  a  ten-ounce  shoe  and 
two-ounce  weight  forward,  with  a  leather  pad  and  sx)onge, 
and  a  seven-ounce  shoe  behind.  The  reason  I  used  the  toe- 
weight  on  Sparkle  w^as  that  Mdthout  it  she  scalped  a  good 
deal,  with  the  toe-weight  she  carried  her  forward  feet  out 
of  the  way,  and  I  thought  went  easier  to  herself.  Someone 
must  have  given  Captain  DeMass  a  tip  on  this  race,  as  it 
was  reported  afterward  that  he  won  handsomely.  I  was 
more  than  pleased  with  the  mare,  and  felt  sure  that,  barring 
accident,  I  would  win  my  share  of  the  money  through  the 
grand  circuit. 

From  Detroit  I  took  her  to  Cleveland,  removed  her  shoes, 
jogged  her  about  on  the  working  track  barefooted,  and  tbe 
day  before  her  race  had  her  re-shod,  and  drove  her  a  couple 
of  miles  in  about  three  minutes.  I  never  remember  of  seeing 
a  better  field  of  horses  face  the  starter  than  there  was  in  this 
race.  I  never  saw  a  harder  contest  on  the  part  of  the  horses 
and  drivers  than  here,  and  when  I  say  that  Mike  Bowerman 
was  there  with  his  coat  off  and  his  war  paint  on  to  drive  J.  Q. , 
who  had  already  shown  a  trial  in  2:15,  and  half  a  dozen  other 
horses  able  to  beat  2:20  also  in  the  lists,  you  would  naturally 
expect  a  battle.  I  laid  Sparkle  up  the  first  heat  in  which 
Felix  Avon  in  about  2:19.  After  this  lieat  I  stood  Sparkle  in 
a  tub  of  water  as  hot  as  I  could  bear  my  hand  in,  and  gave 
her  body  a  thorough  fomenting  with  a  bottle  of  George  Per- 
rin's  Body  Wash,  after  having  it  heated  blood  warm.  I  did 
this  to  get  uj)  a  good  circulation  in  her  feet  and  legs.  The 
second  heat  I  laid  her  up  again,  and  followed  the  same  treat- 
ment after  the  heat.  I  don' t  think  there  was  a  man  on  the 
track  that  exi)ected  to  see  Sparkle  do  what  she  did  in  the 


LIFE    WITH   THE   TROTTERS.  315 

next  lieat.  There  was  a  great  crowcl  of  people  there  and  I 
asked  Mr.  Gordon  to  take  a  i)osition  where  he  could  watch 
the  heat  all  through,  as  I  knew  he  always  enjoyed  a  good 
battle  and  I  thought  he  would  see  one.  Bessie  had  captured 
the  second  heat  in  about  2:17,  and  everybody,  including  the 
plungers  and  talent,  considered  it  a  sure  thing  for  her  to  win 
the  race.  In  scoring  for  the  third  heat  I  changed  my  tactics 
a  little  and  came  up  in  the  front  rank.  For  this  Mi".  Edwards 
reprimanded  me,  threatened  me  with  the  usual  penalty,  and 
I  believe  did  fine  me  once  or  twice.  After  scoring  ten  or 
twelve  times  they  got  the  word.  Sparkle  and  Bessie  rushed 
away  like  two  quarter-horses,  and  J.  Q.  broke  in  a  wild 
attempt  to  keep  pace  with  them.  From  there  to  the  head  of 
the  stretch  Bessie  and  SjDarkle  fought  it  out  alone;  Sparkle 
staid  the  longest  and  won  the  heat  in  2:17,  which  is  the 
fastest  heat  she  ever  trotted.  Billy  Button  beat  her  the 
next  heat,  and  the  race  was  postponed  on  account  of  dark- 
ness until  the  next  day,  when  it  was  fought  out  from  end 
to  end.  Sparkle  winning  the  eighth  and  ninth  heats.  To  show 
that  this  was  a  more  than  ordinary  contest,  I  will  state  that 
the  nine  heats  in  this  race  average  better  than  2:20,  which  is 
the  fastest  average  in  any  one  race  of  the  same  iiumber  of 
heats  ever  paced  or  trotted.  Some  of  the  horses  wliich  took 
l^art  never  were  heard  of  afterward,  and  when  you  take  into 
consideration  the  distance  they  must  have  gone  in  scoring 
from  ten  to  fifteen  times  in  each  of  those  nine  heats  and  the 
rate  of  speed  that  they  went  a  part  of  the  way  it  is  not  to  be 
wondered  at.  After  the  race  I  took  Sparkle's  shoes  off, 
turned  her  out  in  the  paddock  for  two  or  three  days,  re-shod 
her  and  took  her  to  Buffalo,  where  she  won  a  five-heat  race 
in  the  same  class.  She  was  not  as  good  a  mare  in  this  race, 
the  severe  ordeal  in  Cleveland  having  taken  the  edge  off  her 
to  a  great  extent.  The  following  week  at  Rochester  J.  Q, 
beat  her  in  four  heats.  I  gave  Sparkle  scarcely  any  work 
between  her  races,  contenting  myself  with  nursing  and  trying 
to  allay  the  soreness  and  infiamma  tion  in  her  feet.  At  Utica 
the  next  week  in  the  2:19  class,  the  battle  narrowed  down 

21 


316  LIFE   WITH  THE   TROTTERS. 

to  her  and  J.  Q.,  the  rest  of  their  opponents  having  gone  to 
the  hospital.  Neither  one  of  them  was  at  an  edge,  being  sore, 
stale  and  short  of  speed.  The  public  made  J.  Q.  favorite 
over  the  field.  He  broke  and  acted  badly  in  the  first  heat, 
but  after  that  they  fought  it  out,  and  it  took  all  the  aftei'- 
noon  to  decide  the  race  and  in  the  last  heat,  after  Sparkle 
had  been  driven  to  the  best  of  my  ability  from  start  to  finish, 
she  did  not  beat  the  gelding  over  a  head.  This  is  the  last 
race  Sparkle  e^'er  won  for  me.  At  Hartford  Arab  beat  her 
a  five-heat  race,  and  from  there  she  was  sent  to  winter  quar- 
ters. While  this  mare  was  not  born  in  the  purple,  nor 
fashionably  bred,  she  proved  to  everyone  by  this  campaign 
that  she  had  all  the  qualities  that  go  to  make  up  the  first- 
class  race-horse.  She  was  about  sixteen  hands  high,  a  veiy 
handsome  upheaded  mare,  very  steady,  a  first- class  breaker, 
and  I  drove  her  with  an  open  bridle,  long  martingales  and 
an  easy  bit. 

The  best  time  to  commence  to  get  a  horse  ready  for  the 
summer  campaign  is  the  previous  fall.  After  a  horse  has 
closed  a  long  and  tedious  spell  of  training  if  you  expect  to' 
trot  him  the  next  year  you  do  not  want  to  neglect  him 
through  the  fall  and  winter.  If  you  bring  him  home  poor 
in  flesh,  worn  out  in  his  nervous  organization,  more  or  less 
sore  and  tired,  pull  the  harness  oil  him,  get  a  cheap  boy 
who  doesn'  t  know  or  care  anything  to  take  care  of  him,  and 
leave  him  in  that  condition  until  spring,  and  then  have  a 
good  horse  I  shall  be  mistaken.  My  idea  is  to  give  the 
trotter  a  short  run  at  grass  through  the  j^leasant  days  in 
fall,  take  him  up  every  night,  give  him  just  as  good  a  bed 
and  just  as  much  attention  as  you  would  through  the  sum- 
mer, and  give  him  what  grain  you  think  he  ought  to  have. 
If  he  has  any  weak  or  sore  j^laces  call  in  the  veterinary  and 
try  and  get  them  strong  and  well  before  spring.  Now  is 
the  time  to  look  after  his  feet.  In  the  winter  a  horse's 
feet  will  not  grow  as  well  as  in  summer,  so  you  may  have 
to  use  some  extra  exertion  in  that  direction.  In  regard  to 
the  amount  of  flesh  a  horse  should  be  allowed  to  put  on  in 


LIFE    WITH   THE   TROTTERS.  317 

winter,  it  all  depends  on  the  kind  of  a  horse  you  have.  If 
he  is  soft  and  washy  and  scrapes  easily  there  is  not  much 
danger  so  long  as  you  do  not  allow  the  llesli  to  get  baked 
on  him.  If  you  give  your  horse  a  good  field  to  run  in  and 
he  is  in  good  health  and  spirits  he  will  take  a  great  deal  of 
exercise  himself.  As  the  weather  grows  colder  leave  him 
in  the  field  only  as  long  as  he  wants  to  stir  about.  Give 
him  thirty  minutes  in  the  morning  and  the  same  in  the 
afternoon.  If  the  ground  gets  hard  put  tips  on  him  so  he 
will  not  break  his  feet;  weigh  him  about  once  in  thirty 
days  and  then  you  will  not  be  deceived  in  his  condition. 

As  to  blankets  in  winter,  I  like  a  comfortable  stall  and  the 
less  clothes  the  better.  If  it  comes  to  a  cold  night  and  you 
think  you  want  an  extra  blanket  on  your  own  bed,  see  that 
the  horse  has  one.  Keep  everything  about  your  horse  and 
stable  in  winter  just  as  clean  as  you  would  in  summer.  A 
horse  is  different  from  a  hog,  he  never  thrives  in  dirt.  As 
to  when  you  will  take  your  horse  up  in  the  spring  and 
commence  to  work  him  depends  entirely  upon  what  part  of 
the  season  you  want  to  trot  him.  If  you  think  he  will  not 
be  good  enough  to  go  through  the  grand  circuit  get  ready 
and  take  in  Michigan  and  Indiana  for  a  little  early  com. 
When  you  have  made  up  your  mind  just  what  you  want  to 
do  with  him,  then  you  should  decide  on  your  training 
ground — something  very  important  in  the  Northern  country, 
where  at  the  best  we  have  a  good  deal  of  uncertain  weather 
in  the  spring.  What  you  need  now  is  good  roads,  early 
grass,  good  water,  good  stabling  and  a  track  that  dries  off 
quickly  after  the  rain,  and  wherever  that  is  take  your  horse 
there  and  train  him. 

There  has  been  a  great  deal  written  and  said  for  and 
against  clipping  horses.  I  myself  have  clipped  at  some  time 
in  their  career  all  the  best  horses  I  ever  trained.  When 
you  take  a  horse  up  out  of  his  winter  quarters,  he  will 
naturally  have  an  excessive  coat  of  hair,  his  flesh  will  be 
soft,  and  with  very  moderate  exercise  he  will  sweat  more 
or  less.     If  the  weather  is  cold  it  is  impossible  to  rub  him 


318  LIFE    WITH   THE   TROTTERS. 

dry,  and  lie  may  sweat  off  the  flesh  a  good  deal  faster  than 
you  want  Mm  to.  Under  those  conditions  I  invariably  clip 
a  horse,  and  the  result  has  always  been  perfectly  satisfac- 
tory to  me.  I  clipped  Johnston,  Rams,  Fanny  Wither- 
spoon,  Mambrino  Sj)arkle  and  a  host  of  other  horses  that 
have  been  successful  on  the  turf.  After  locating  your 
training  ground  and  getting  your  horses  in  shape  to  work, 
you  must  be  controlled  entirely  by  the  dispositions,  physi- 
cal characteristics  and  other  peculiarities  of  the  animals 
which  compose  the  string,  and  also  what  sort  of  races  you 
expect  to  trot  them.  If  you  are  going  to  trot  them  races  of 
mile  heats,  three  in  five,  or  if  you  have  a  star  performer 
and  are  going  to  give  some  exhibition  miles,  you  vv'ill  natu- 
rally treat  them  differently.  A  great  many  people  give  their 
horses  all  their  work  to  a  sulky.  I  do  not.  Every  man 
should  have  in  his  stable  two  different  weights  of  road- 
carts;  one  strong  enough  to  give  work  on  the  road  with, 
and  the  other  lighter  to  use  on  the  track,  for  the  reason 
that  it  takes  the  weight  off'  the  horse' s  shoulders  and  back, 
and  if  his  legs  are  weak  or  sore,  it  will  naturally  relieve 
those  parts.  I  have  used  various  different  carts  in  this 
work,  among  them  that  manufactured  by  W.  S.  Frazier  & 
Co.,  of  Aurora,  111.,  and  have  found  them  the  best,  they 
being  durable,  with  good  running  action,  and  easy  on  the 
horse.  Other  drivers  have  expressed  the  same  views  to  me. 
I  do  not  believe  it  is  necessary  to  give  horses  as  much 
walking  and  jogging  as  they  often  get.  In  preparing  a  horse 
for  mile  heats,  si)eed  is,  I  think,  the  element  to  be  sought 
after.  When  you  have  hardened  your  horse's  legs  and 
body  by  road  work  you  commence  his  work  on  the  track. 
Be  sure  that  you  have  a  good  track  to  w^ork  him  on,  and 
above  all  things  do  not  work  him  at  a  high  rate  of  speed  in 
the  mud.  I  have  seen  men  take  a  horse  out  two  days  before 
his  race  and  work  him  in  the  mud,  and  when  the  day  of  the 
race  came  and  the  horse  had  no  speed  they  wondered  what 
ailed  him.  As  good  a  man  to  copy  after  in  this  respect  that 
I  know   of,    is  Gen.  John  E.  Turner.     Some  people,  seeing 


LIFE   WITH   THE  TROTTERS,  319 

this  title  applied  to  Turner  in  the  newspapers  so  frequently, 
have  come  to  regard  it  as  an  empty  one,  but  such  is  not  the 
case,  because  if  there  ever  was  a  Napoleon  of  the  trotting 
turf  Turner  is  the  man.  A  leading  characteristic  of  Tur- 
ner's methods  in  the  conduct  of  a  trotting  stable  is  his  care 
of  the  horses  during  every  part  of  their  X)reparation,  and  in 
the  matter  of  working  fast  on  a  deep  or  heavy  track  he  is  as 
much  horrified  to  see  it  done  as  the  ordinary  citizen  woukl 
be  at  meeting  the  devil,  horns  and  all.  And  to  prove  my 
statements  about  him,  I  will  say  that  Turner  has  taken  part 
in  every  campaign  since  trotting  has  become  a  National  pas- 
time, and  judging  from  the  taxes  he  pays  he  has  at  least 
gotten  his  share  of  the  money.  When  you  see  a  man  who 
takes  a  horse  and  campaigns  him  for  three  or  four  years  you 
can  rest  assured  that  he  has  exercised  a  great  deal  of  care 
and  attention  in  the  matter. 

If  your  track  gets  hard  hire  some  man  to  harrow  it,  but 
don't  work  the  horses  on  a  hard  track.  In  the  spring,  when 
the  horse  is  soft,  you  can  do  him  more  hann  in  five  minutes 
than  you  can  undo  in  the  balance  of  the  year.  Never  be  in 
a  hurry  about  speeding  a  trotter,  give  him  plenty  of  slow 
heats.  If  he  is  any  good  when  he  gets  in  condition  he  will 
show  you  the  speed.  If  you  have  a  horse  that  has  any 
peculiarities  in  the  way  of  driving  now  is  the  time  to  over- 
come them.  If  he  is  unsteady  in  company  or  a  slow  scorer, 
get  out  your  old  runner,  set  a  day,  and  go  to  the  track  and 
give  him  a  regular  race.  I  do  not  mean  to  drive  him  as  fast 
as  he  can  go,  but  go  down  and  score  him  up  in  company, 
and  keep  rej^eating  it.  I  scored  Fanny  Witherspoon  a 
hundred  times  in  one  day — in  fact,  for  a  month  I  gave  her  all 
the  work  she  had  in  scoring,  and  for  my  pains  was  repaid  by 
making  her  a  f auiy  good  scorer.  After  seeing  Orrin  Ilickok 
train  St.  Julien,  I  am  sure  that  no  horse  lives  that  Avith  plenty 
of  time  and  patience  (^an  not  be  conquered.  I  think  Ilickok's 
training  of  St.  Julien  was  the  best  example  I  ever  saw  of  the 
persistent  application  of  brains  and  bulldog  tenacity  in  the 
driver  against  willfulness  and  obstinacy  in  a  horse  that  was 


330  LIFE  WITH  THE  TROTTERS. 

known  to  be  worth  all  the  trouble  taken  with  him,  if  only- 
he  could  be  made  to  obey  the  will  of  his  trainer.  And  if 
Hickok  had  never  trained  or  driven  another  horse  my  ver- 
dict would  always  have  been  that  he  was  a  first-class  horse- 
man. In  training  your  horse,  dont  give  him  the  best  of  it 
all  the  time;  try  him  in  every  jDOsition  you  think  he  might 
be  placed  in  during  an  actual  race.  Try  and  teach  him  at 
all  times  to  let  you  do  all  the  driving.  If  he  is  afraid  of 
the  runner  and  tries  to  rush  away,  bring  the  runner  to  him 
carefully.  The  only  thing  I  ever  saw  in  the  shape  of  a  horse 
that  Rarus  was  afraid  of  was  a  runner.  Hickok  told  me  that 
St.  Julien  was  the  same,  and  for  that  reason  Orrin  always 
worked  him  mth  a  pacer.  If  your  horse  is  iDarticularly 
i-ank  work  him  alone  until  you  get  the  wire -edge  off  him, 
then  take  your  jDrompter  and  show  him  that  he  is  not  going 
to  be  hurt. 

Never  try  to  do  anything  with  a  horse  by  main  strength 
and  ignorance.  You  can  not  make  a  good  hack-horse  in 
that  way,  let  alone  a  race-horse.  In  training  horses  never 
try  to  do  too  much.  I  have  heard  men  talk  about  training- 
twenty  horses,  but  that  seems  impossible  to  me.  The  minute 
a  man  overworks  himself  he  will  get  nervous,  cross  and  irri- 
table, and  neglect  some  vital  point  and  thereby  lose  his 
money  some  day.  In  training  a  horse  a  man  Las  to  use  his 
brains  as  well  as  his  hands,  and  he  had  better  train  one 
horse  w^ell  and  have  i^lenty  of  time  to  lay  out  his  campaign, 
than  to  train  a  large  stable  poorly,  leave  the  door  open 
some  day,  and  let  the  boys  get  in  on  him.  After  you  have 
given  the  horse  his  preparatory  work  and  his  body,  legs  and 
wind  are  in  condition  to  move  him  along  faster,  hitch  him 
to  your  sulky.  I  think  that  in  this  matter  it  is  well  to  have 
two  weights  of  sulkies,  one  to  work  a  horse  to,  and  one  to 
trot  him  races  in.  Every  driver  has  his  own  ideas  about 
which  is  the  best  sulky.  I  myself  have  no  delicacy  in  stat- 
ing that  I  think  S.  Toomey  &  Co.,  of  Canal  Dover,  Ohio, 
make  the  best  sulkies  I  ever  saw.  They  sit  the  best,  wear 
the  best,  and  it  is  almost  impossible  to  hook  a  horse  to  one 


LIFE  WITH   THE  TROTTERS.  321 

of  them  in  a  manner  to  make  them  hit  him.  Toomey  &  Co. 
made  for  me  a  forty-pound  sulky  strong  enough  to  drive 
any  ordinary  horse  to.  In  ordering  a  sulky  tell  your  maker 
the  size  of  your  horse,  the  j)eculiarities  of  his  gait,  if  any, 
how  tall  you  are  yourself,  which  will  give  him  an  opi^or- 
tunity  to  build  you  a  sulky  that  will  be  comfortable  for  you 
and  the  horse.  In  sitting  in  your  sulky  you  want  your 
stirrups  long  enough  to  give  you  an  easy  x)osition.  If  you 
have  your  stirrups  short  it  cram]3s  your  body  and  limbs  in 
such  a  manner  as  to  make  it  hard  work  for  you,  and  if  the 
horse  pulls  the  least  bit,  you  are  at  a  disadvantage.  Never 
throw  your  weight  on  one  side  or  the  other  of  the  vehicle; 
distribute  it  as  evenly  as  possible  over  the  whole.  Never 
use  a  sulky  after  it  gets  old  and  worn  out,  as  it  draws  hard 
and  you  are  liable  to  meet  with  an  accident  which  will  cost 
you  both  your  life  and  money. 

In  training  horses,  always  have  some  fixed  plans  or  rules 
and  train  them  according  to  those  rules  until  you  are  satis- 
tied  you  have  found  out  some  better  ones.  Never  train  him 
in  a  haphazard  way,  as  you  will  find  that  horses  are  like 
men,  creatures  of  habit  to  a  large  extent.  The  old-fashioned 
idea  of  guessing  how  fast  you  are  going  has  gone  out  of 
date.  I  train  my  horses  with  a  watch;  it  is  a  good  thing  for 
the  horse  aiid  the  driver  too.  It  teaches  the  driver  to  be  a 
good  judge  of  pace,  which  is  a  very  essential  thing  in  a  race 
and  a  very  vital  point  if  you  ever  have  Maud  S.,  and  want 
to  beat  the  watch.  Don't  be  satisfied  with  any  cheap  watch 
or  timer;  go  to  some  first-class  maker  like  Giles  Bros.,  of 
Chicago,  tell  them  what  you  want  and  what  you  want  to  use 
it  for,  and  they  will  furnish  you  with  something  that  will 
help  yoii  train  your  horse  right  to  the  letter.  When  I  decide 
just  what  work  I  want  my  horse  to  have,  I  go  about  it  with 
just  as  much  care  and  attention  as  if  I  was  going  to  drive  in 
a  race  for  money.  Never  allow  yourself  under  any  circum- 
stance to  become  careless.  Remember  that  you  not  only 
want  to  train  your  horse,  but  you  also  want  to  keep  your- 
self on  edge.  In  these  times  when  you  have  to  contend  with 


322  LIFE    WITH    THE   TROTTERS. 

ten  or  twelve  horses  in  a  race,  driven  by  the  same  number  of 
active  young  men  Avho  are  all  looking  for  first  money,  you 
will  find  it  very  necessary  to  keep  your  right  foot  forward 
at  all  times. 

In  working  your  horse,  be  sure  and  teach  him  to  go  on  a 
trot,  if  that  is  the  kind  of  horse  you  are  training.  At  one 
time  there  was  an  idea  it  was  a  good  thing  to  teach  a  horse 
to  be  a  good  breaker.  Trotters  always  go  best  when  they  go 
on  a  trot.  If  you  see  a  man  working  his  horse  and  he  is 
continually  breaking  in  his  work,  you  watch  that  same  horse 
in  a  race  and  you  will  notice  liim  doing  it  there.  If  on  the 
contrary  you  see  a  man  v/orking  his  stable  of  horses  and  they 
are  always  on  a  trot  you  will  find  him  A\ith  his  horses  on  a 
trot  in  a  race.  It  is  a  difficidt  thing  nowadays  for  a  horse  to 
make  a  break  and  win  a  heat.  In  the  first  place  the  judges 
are  very  strict,  and  if  there  is  any  doubt  about  it  the  horses 
which  go  on  a  trot  generally  get  the  benefit  of  the  doubt. 
I  for  one  believe  the  time  will  come  when  no  horse  will  be 
entitled  to  a  heat  if  he  makes  a  break  in  it,  and  I  would  vote 
for  that  now.  In  order  to  teach  your  horse  to  go  on  a  trot 
at  all  times  be  careful  and  never  let  him  break.  If  he  should 
leave  his  feet  don't  snatch  him  to  one  side  as  if  you  intended 
to  uncouple  his  neck,  and  never  whip  him  under  any  cir- 
cumstance. I  think  a  whip  in  the  hands  of  an  ordinary  horse 
trainer  is  far  more  dangerous  than  is  a  revolver  in  the  hands 
of  a  school  boy.  If  a  man  looks  over  the  list  of  his  acquaint- 
ances who  have  been  successful  as  horse  drivers,  he  will 
find  that  as  a  rule  they  are  men  who  are  not  much  given  to 
whipping  their  horses.  A  man  who  loses  his  temper  and 
whips  his  horse  in  anger  will  never  succeed.  If  you  are  not 
able  to  control  yourself  you  will  not  make  much  headway 
in  controlling  your  horses.  With  an  intelligent  man  driving 
a  horse  he  seldom  breaks.  A  horse  may  hit  himself,  step  in 
a  hole  or  some  uneven  place  and  thus  be  made  to  leave  his 
feet,  and  to  whip  him  for  it  will  cause  him  to  break  all  the 
sooner  the  next  time.  After  your  horse  has  broken,  take  a 
gentle  hold  of  him,  attract  his  attention  by  speaking  to  him 


LIFE   WITH   THE   TROTTERS.  823 

and  almost  instantly  you  will  see  he  shows  a  disposition  to 
want  to  catch.  Most  horses  will  catch  better  by  swinging 
them  slightly  to  one  side.  Find  out  which  way  you  think 
the  horse  catches  the  best  and  every  time  he  breaks  pull 
liim  exactly  the  same  way  and  use  the  same  language  to  him, 
and  an  ordinarily  intelligent  horse  will  soon  learn  to  look 
for  it,  and  if  there  is  any  way  for  it  and  if  there  is  any  way 
to  teach  him  to  make  a  good  catch  I  think  that  is  the  way. 
Always  try  to  teach  a  horse  to  catch  on  the  inside  rein,  for 
if  you  were  going  round  the  turn  in  the  lead  and  someone 
trailing  and  he  should  break  obliging  you  to  pull  your  horse 
on  the  outside  rein  your  opponent  might  slip  through  be- 
tween you  and  the  fence  and  beat  you  the  heat  where  he 
would  not  be  able  to  go  round  you  and  do  it.  Then  too  if 
you  are  head-and-head  with  a  man  he  ndght,  when  your 
horse  broke,  crowd  you  in  so  close  that  you  would  be  unable 
to  pull  him  to  the  outside  without  I'unning  into  him,  whereas 
if  he  caught  on  the  left  rein  you  would  have  no  trouble.  If 
you  are  fortunate  enough  to  have  a  horse  that  is  a  first-class 
breaker  never  let  him  or  make  him  break  in  a  race  unless  it 
is  a  case  of  life  and  death.  If  he  is  continually  breaking  the 
public  and  judges  will  get  down  on  him,  and  he  will  some- 
times be  punished  when  he  does  not  really  deserve  it.  Mam- 
brino  Sparkle  was  as  good  a  breaker  as  I  ever  saw.  In  her 
campaign  with  me  she  made,  I  think,  four  breaks.  One  of 
those  I  caused  her  to  make,  and  it  won  her  the  deciding  heat 
of  a  race.     I  guess  Van  Ness  remembers  the  circumstance. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

Work  a  horse  with  the  watch,  but  don't  try  to  make  him  beat  it — Doble  and 
Goldsmith  Maid— The  pacer  Johnston  never  worked  out  at  top  speed — 
One  speeding  each  week  is  ordinarily  sufficient — Preparations  for  a  race — 
Deportment  on  the  track — How  to  talk  to  the  judges— Laying  up  heats  an 
important  matter — How  to  drive  after  the  word  is  giveu — A  case  of  bad 
judgment  in  a  postponed  race — Shipping  horses  from  point  to  point— The 
training  and  management  of  trotting  stallions. 

In  working  your  horse  with  the  watch  never  try  to  make 
the  horse  beat  the  watch;  that  is  the  hardest  task  ever  set 
for  a  horse — or  in  other  words  do  not  try  to  see  how  fast  you 
can  drive  him  in  his  work.  People  imagine,  when  you  have 
had  some  very  fast  horse  in  your  stable,  that  you  must  have 
some  day  given  liim  a  wonderful  trial.  The  best  mile  I  ever 
saw  Doble  drive  Goldsmith  Maid,  was  2:16,  and  when  he  did 
that  he  had  her  especially  prepared  for  it.  The  best  mile 
ever  I  gave  Johnston  in  his  work  was  2:13|.  I  never  saw 
Hickok  drive  St.  Julien  in  his  exercise  better  than  2:15.  I 
never  heard  of  such  men  as  Golden,  Jock  Bowen,  Turner  and 
that  class  of  drivers  giving  their  horses  any  wonderful  trials. 
You  may  ask:  "  How  do  you  know  your  horse  is  able  to  trot 
a  good  mile?"  A  good  baker  ought  to  be  able  to  tell, 
whether  his  bread  is  baked  or  not  without  having  to  cut  it 
up  and  put  butter  on  and  eat  it  to  find  out.  It  is  the  same 
with  a  horse  trainer— he  should  know  about  how  well  his 
horse  can  go  without  stringing  him  out  all  the  way.  Every 
time  you  drive  a  trotter  a  mile  against  the  watch  as  fast  as 
he  can  go  you  discourage  the  horse.  If  he  is  the  least  bit 
out  of  condition  you  are  liable  to  injure  him  permanently. 
If  you  keei>  repeatedly  trying  him  and  stringing  him  out  to 

(324) 


LIFE   WITH   THE   TROTTERS.  325 

his  utmost  capacitj^,  no  matter  how  game  he  is,  it  will  have 
a  tendency  to  discourage  him,  and  when  you  want  him  he 
will  fail  to  give  you  his  best  efforts.  Keex)  a  little  siDeed 
bottled  up  in  him,  never  let  him  know  just  how  fast  he  can 
go,  and  when  it  comes  to  a  case  where  you  need  it  he  will 
make  a  better  effort  for  you  than  he  otherwise  would. 

After  you  have  given  your  horse  all  the  working  miles 
you  think  it  is  necessary  for  him  to  have  and  you  are  think- 
ing about  getting  him  ready  to  enter  in  races,  my  idea  is  to 
give  him  all  his  fast  work  then  in  the  form  of  a  race — that  is 
to  set  a  day,  have  your  track  and  everything  put  in  order, 
make  up  your  mind  about  what  you  want  to  do  with  him, 
how  many  miles  he  ought  to  have  and  how  fast  he  ought  to 
go,  whether  you  want  to  score  him  or  not,  etc.  My  advice 
is  to  always  score  a  horse;  that  is  the  first  thing  you  have  to 
do  when  you  go  in  a  race,  and  if  you  do  not  teach  him  that 
in  his  work,  you  are  at  a  disadvantage  when  you  start  in  a 
race.  If  you  have  ahorse  that  has  any  weakness  in  his  legs, 
instead  of  driving  that  animal  at  a  high  rate  of  speed  to 
condition  him  drive  him  slower  and  farther,  or  to  explain 
it,  instead  of  driving  him  one  mile  in  2:30,  drive  him  a  two- 
mile  lieat  in  5:20,  that  would  be  each  mile  in  2:40,  which 
would  condition  his  body  and  help  to  strengthen  his  \veak 
legs,  where  a  mile  in  2:30  might  strain  the  legs  and  retard 
his  training.  It  is  not  the  distance  that  a  horse  goes  that 
tires  or  strains  him;  it  is  the  high  rate  of  speed.  When  you 
have  decided  how  fast  a  mile  to  give  your  horse  and  how 
fast  he  ought  to  be  sent  each  quarter  of  it,  then  drive  him 
there  and  take  pains  to  see  how  close  to  the  mark  you  can 
go  each  time.  I  have  seen  men  go  out  and  drive  a  horse 
five  or  six  seconds  faster  than  they  intended  to.  If  I  sent  a 
man  out  to  drive  one  of  my  horses  and  he  should  make  such 
a  mistake  as  that  he  would  lose  his  position.  I  might  for- 
give him  for  driving  his  horse  too  slow,  but  never  for  going 
too  fast.  In  being  careful  in  training  your  horse  not  only 
will  the  horse  do  well  but  you  will  make  a  very  much  better 
driver  of  yourself. 


326  lAVE    WITJI    'JHE   TROTTERS. 

After  you  give  your  horse  bis  day's  work,  you  then 
decide  what  work  he  needs  and  when  he  ought  to  have  it 
again.  I  think  a  day's  work  like  that  given  him  once  a 
week,  with  moderate  jogging  the  balance  of  the  time  and  a 
little  opening-out  the  day  before  you  want  to  work  him 
again  will  be  all  that  will  be  necessary  for  him  to  have.  I 
hate  to  have  a  horse  continually  worked  without  regard  to 
system  or  time,  as  in  that  way  you  never  know  just  how 
much  work  you  do  give  him.  The  nearer  you  get  to  your 
race,  the  shorter  work  the  horse  should  have;  that  is,  instead 
of  giving  him  four  or  five  heats,  give  him  two  or  three,  with 
occasional  brushes  at  nearly  the  toj)  of  his  speed.  If  you 
have  a  horse  that  is  dull  and  lazy,  don't  be  continually 
clucking  and  whipping  him  along.  When  you  do  speak  to 
him,  give  him  to  understand  that  you  do  mean  just  Avhat 
you  say.  When  you  work  such  a  horse  have  plenty  of  com- 
pany. Give  him  a  little  the  best  of  it.  Give  him  the  lead 
the  most  of  the  time,  and  don't  let  the  other  horses  out- trot 
him.  In  that  Avay  you  will  encourage  him  and  he  will  take 
more  interest  in  his  work.  If  I  have  a  horse  that  has  a  bad 
leg,  or  in  fact  almost  any  other  weakness,  the  day  after  his 
work  I  give  him  absolute  rest  and  put  in  the  time  doctoring 
the  weak  place.  In  that  way  you  will  be  able  to  keep  the 
inflammation  and  fever,  if  there  is  any,  subdued  until  the 
leg  becomes  strong  again.  If  you  have  a  horse  that  you 
expect  simx^ly  to  trot  exhibition  miles,  he  will  not  need 
nearly  as  long  and  hard  work  as  a  horse  that  is  going  to  trot 
in  races  of  mile  heats,  three  in  five.  When  I  train  a  horse 
for  exhibition  I  train  him  for  speed  alone,  as  I  have  found 
that  an  ordinarily  game  horse,  if  he  is  conditioned  to  go  a 
quarter  of  a  mile  at  the  top  of  his  speed  and  properly  rated, 
ought  to  go  a  good  mile. 

I  think  there  is  no  place  where  scientific  driving  counts 
for  more  than  in  trotting  a  horse  against  the  watch.  The 
watch  never  makes  a  mistake,  and  if  you  have  a  close  race 
with  it  and  you  make  one  that  costs  you  the  money.  A  very 
good  way  for  a  beginner,  I  think,  is  to  keep  a  memorandum 


\ 
LIFE    WITH   THE   TROTTERS.  327 

of  all  the  work  he  does  with  his  horse.  I  think  the  ten- 
dency of  most  people  is  to  overwork  their  horses — that  is, 
they  give  them  too  much  work  at  a  high  rate  of  speed.  If 
you  confine  yourself  to  a  working  gait  it  will  be  almost 
impossible  to  overwork  a  horse.  I  have  often  worked  horses 
seven  or  eight  heats  in  one  day,  but  perhaps  none  of  them 
was  within  twenty  seconds  of  where  the  horse  could  go  at  his 
best;  in  that  way  you  will  get  him  strong  and  not  strain  or 
sore  him. 

When  you  have  arrived  at  the  time  to  start  your  horse 
in  the  race  there  is  a  good  deal  to  be  thought  of.  The  first 
thing  to  find  out  is  what  chance,  if  any,  have  you  to  win. 
This  you  can  only  determine  by  a  careful  study  of  all  the 
other  horses  and  drivers  and  having  a  correct  line  on  your 
own.  It  is  not  a  bad  idea  to  have  some  good  man  watch 
the  other  horses,  if  you  can  not  do  it  yourself.  If  you  con- 
clude that  you  have  a  chance,  I  am  not  going  to  advise  you 
to  bet  on  your  horse,  that' s  entirely  outside  of  training, 
although  I  occasionally  put  a  little  money  on  my  horses 
when  I  think  well  of  them.  When  the  bell  rings  for  the 
race,  be  sure  that  you  are  on  hand  to  get  the  word. 
Have  your  horse  well  harnessed  and  well  shod,  and  it  is  not 
a  bad  idea  to  have  his  shoes  examined  the  morning  of  the 
race  to  see  that  they  are  all  in  proj^er  place.  When  you  go 
to  the  track  take  everything  in  the  way  of  tools  that  you 
think  you  can  possibly  need.  Take  plenty  of  good  help  to 
take  care  of  the  horse  between  heats. 

Here  is  a  very  good  time  to  X)ay  a  little  attention  to  your 
own  personal  appearance.  I  believe  that  to  be  well  dressed 
is  a  duty  every  driver  owes  to  the  jDublic,  as  the  people  pay 
to  be  pleased  and  I  think  to  see  a  man  badly  dressed  cer- 
tainly detracts  from  their  xDleasure.  There  is  one  other 
thing  that  the  driver  will  find  of  great  importance,  and  that 
is  the  judges'  stand.  My  plan  is  to  see  how  well  I  can  get 
on  with  the  judges,  for  they  often  judge  races  that  are  so 
close  that  a  very  little  thing  will  decide  for  or  against  you. 
I  think  no  one  understood  this  part  of  the  business  better 


328  LIFE   WITH   THE   TKOTTEKS. 

• 

than  Dan  Mace.  He  never  disobeyed  orders  unless  it  was 
a  case  of  life  and  death.  Never  make  a  complaint  to  the 
judges  unless  you  think  it  is  going  to  do  you  some  good. 
If  you  have  a  complaint  to  make  never  do  it  when  every- 
body else  is  talking;  be  sure  that  you  have  the  Judges' 
undivided  attention,  and  then  make  your  statement,  and 
always  remember  that,  everything  else  being  equal,  the 
driver  who  makes  the  last  statement  to  the  judges  has  the 
best  of  it.  I  think  it  a  very  good  idea  to  be  on  good  terms 
with  the  public.  I  mean  that  part  of  the  public  who  pay 
their  money,  take  a  seat  in  the  grand  stand  and  are  there 
for  amusement  alone.  I  myself,  do  not  take  much  interest 
in  the  few  professional  people  who  go  to  the  race-track  to 
gamble^  They  generally  squeeze  in  without  paying  a  cent 
and  imagine  that  they  are  the  only  ones  whose  interest 
ought  to  be  looked  after.  They  are  willing  to  go  to  the 
stable  and  avail  themselves  of  information  that  they  know 
we  do  not  want  them  to  have.  They,  as  a  rule,  have  no 
regard  for  the  rights  of  trainers,  owners  or  anybody  else. 
And  the  less  a  driver  has  to  do  with  that  class  of  peoi:>le  so 
much  the  better  he  will  be  off,  both  linancially  and  other- 
wise. There  are  some  men  who  go  to  a  race-track  and  bet 
their  money  in  an  honorable  and  straightforward  manner. 
Their  word  is  as  good  as  gold.  You  will  never  have  any 
trouble  with  this  class  because  of  their  obtruding  themselves 
on  your  private  affairs. 

As  a  rule  I  decide  to  lay  my  horse  up  the  first  heat  or 
two.  Here  is  something- that  the  rules  say  you  have  no 
right  to  do.  Tliere  has  been  a  great  deal  written  and  said 
on  the  subject,  but  I  insist  from  my  standpoint  that  every 
man  should  have  the  right  to  lay  his  horse  up,  or  drive  him 
in  any  manner  that  he  sees  fit,  providing  that  at  all  times 
he  is  driving  at  the  best  of  his  ability  to  win  the  race.  I  do 
not  think  that  any  man  should  have  the  light  to  lay  his 
horse  up  for  the  sake  of  beating  the  pool-box  or  playing 
the  books,  but  if  in  his  opinion,  he  can  win  an  easier  and 
safer   race  by   laying  U23,    he  should   have   the  privilege 


LIFE  WITH   THE  TROTTERS.  329 

of  doing  it.  If  a  horse  gets  a  bad  send-off  and  you  are  com- 
pelled to  drive  for  the  heat  when  you  know  you  have  no 
chance  to  win  it  may  cost  you  the  race  then  and  there.  It 
has  for  many  years  been  the  custom  that  a  man  always  had 
the  right  to  lay  up  when  he  thought  best.  I  can  look  back 
and  see  where  I  have  won  some  of  the  best  races  of  my  life 
by  laying  up,  where  I  know  I  would  have  lost  had  I  gone 
about  it  in  any  other  manner.  In  driving  a  heat  no  rules 
that  a  man  could  lay  down  can  make  you  win.  You  may 
get  some  hint  that  will  do  you  good,  and  the  best  way  to  do 
that  is  to  carefully  watch  every  good  driver  that  you  see 
and  learn  his  methods. 

If  you  decide  to  lay  your  horse  u]3  the  first  heat,  there  is 
some  method  in  even  that.  You  need  not  be  particular 
about  rushing  off  in  the  lead,  nor  yet  would  I  go  off  too  far 
behind,  as  in  that  case  you  would  lose  so  much  ground  in  the 
start  that  at  some  time  in  the  mile  you  would  have  to  drive 
along  mucli  faster  than  you  ought  to  save  your  distance. 
Of  course  if  the  distance  is  150  yards  that  gives  you  a  long 
leeway.  I  have  seen  men  go  out  to  lay  up  a  heat  and  lay 
it  all  up  in  the  first  half-mile  and  then  have  to  drive  the 
last  half  as  fast  as  they  could,  and  in  that  way  make  the 
heat  as  hard  on  the  horse  as  though  they  had  tried  to 
win  the  heat  with  him.  The  proper  way,  I  think,  is  to 
lay  up  so  much  in  each  quarter,  and  while  you  are  laying 
your  own  horse  up,  try  and  keep  your  eye  on  everybody 
else  in  the  race.  There  may  be  some  other  man  doing  the 
same  thing..  By  this  time  you  have  probably  decided  which 
is  the  best  horse  in  the  race.  If  so,  don't  waste  your 
powder  shooting  at  lame  birds  but  keep  your  eye  on  what 
you  really  think  is  the  best  horse.  If  you  fancy  there  is  a 
chance  of  anyone  else  giving  him  a  corking  heat  don't  be 
afraid  to  lay  up  and  take  the  chance.  After  you  have  laid 
up  two  or  three  heats  and  you  can't  win  then  you  may  rest 
assured  you  could  not  have  won  had  you  made  a  fight  from 
the  start.  Remember  one  thing  always,  that  a  general  will 
win  more  races  than  any  man  can  by  main  strength  and 


330  LIFE   WITH   THE  TROTTERS. 

ignorance.  I  never  saw  a  man  that  could  go  in  a  heat  and 
drive  against  eight  or  ten  people,  handle  his  own  horse  well 
and  come  back  and  tell  you  what  all  the  others  were  doing 
better  than  Mace  could.  He  also  had  a  way  of  making 
everyone  believe  he  was  driving  all  he  could  sometimes 
when  such  was  not  the  case.  In  that  way  he  found  out  a 
great  deal  about  the  other  horses  and  kept  their  drivers  in 
the  dark  about  his  own. 

There  is  one  thing  a  driver  should  always  remember, 
and  that  is  that  in  driving  a  horse  his  first  duty  is  to  the 
owner  and  his  interests.  After  driving  a  heat  if  you  have 
any  information  that  you  think  he  would  like  to  know  let 
him  be  the  first  to  know  it,  and  from  you.  In  that  way  you 
relieve  yourself  of  a  good  deal  of  unnecessary  responsibility 
at  certain  times.  After  the  heat  is  over  take  personal 
charge  of  cooling  out  your  horse.  If  you  want  any  infor- 
mation as  regards  the  betting  or  anything  else  that  may 
arise  get  someone  else  to  do  all  that  for  you  and  give  your 
undivided  attention  to  the  horse,  as  I  consider  this  one  of 
the  vital  parts  of  success  in  racing.  Not  only  see  that 
your  horse  is  properly  cared  for  but  also  that  your  harness 
and  boots  are  properly  cleaned,  as  in  that  way  you  may 
often  prevent  a  horse  from  being  chafed  and  sore.  The  old- 
fashioned  method  of  rubbing  a  horse  severely  between  heats 
is  entirely  out  of  date.  Never  allow  a  man  to  rub  a  horse  in 
a  severe  manner,  as  that  hurts  the  horse  more  than  you  can 
imagine.  It  will  make  his  skin  so  sore  that  he  will  want  to 
fight  if  you  look  at  him,  and  the  time  that  he  should  be 
resting  he  will  spend  in  kicking  and  iighting  the  boy.  The 
better  plan  is  to  rub  him  but  very  little  and  then  with  soft 
cloths.  Use  just  as  few  blankets  as  possible.  I  could 
never  see  any  reason  why  a  horse  after  trotting  a  severe 
heat  should  be  loaded  down  with  heavy  blankets  and  com- 
pelled to  perspire  in  a  manner  that  will  certainly  make  him 
weak  and  dull.  If  you  trot  a  horse  five  or  six  heats  in  one 
afternoon  and  force  him  to  sweat  very  freely  every  time 
you  will  have  him  very  much  weakened  by  night.     If  your 


LIFE   WITH   THE  TROTTERS.  831 

horse  is  inclined  to  be  sore  and  stiff  in  any  way  and  hard  to 
warm  np  you  will  find  that  warm  ai3x:)lications  of  stimulat- 
ing liquor  to  the  body  and  legs  will  have  a  very  beneficial 
effect.  Standing  a  horse's  feetjn  warm  water  I  have  found 
a  very  good  thing.  A  great  many  horses  after  a  severe  heat 
will  get  corded  in  their  muscles.  After  this  has  hapi^ened 
once  it  comes  on  very  much  easier  the  next  time.  If  you 
have  a  horse  subject  to  this  the  more  you  keep  him  moving 
about  on  a  walk  the  lese  liable  he  will  be  to  be  taken. 
Blankets  wrung  out  of  warm  \^'ater  and  laid  across  his  back 
and  shoulders  are  very  good  at  such  times.  The  best  thing 
I  ever  tried  for  this  is  a  quilt  filled  with  hops.  Have  it 
wrung  out  of  hot  water  and  laid  across  the  horse's  shoul- 
ders ;  this  will  often  give  relief  when  nothing  else  will. 
Severe  work  at  a  high  rate  of  speed  when  a  horse  is  noc 
conditioned  for  it  is  almost  sure  to  bring  on  this  state  of 
affairs.  If  you  know  your  horse  has  a  weakness  of  any 
kind  the  safest  plan  is  to  always  use  a  preventive,  as  they 
say  "an  ounce  of  prevention  is  worth  a  pound  of  cure," 
and  I  think  in  this  case  it  is  true. 

Be  sure  and  be  ready  when  the  judges  ring  the  bell  for 
the  second  heat.  Don't  keep  the  i3eople  and  judges  wait- 
ing for  you  as  that  gets  everybody  out  of  patience.  If 
anything  should  happen  that  you  are  obliged  to  have  a  shoe 
removed  or  any  other  reason  why  you  can  not  be  there  when 
they  ring  the  bell  send  word  to  the  judges  what  the  diffi- 
culty is  and  ask  them  for  time,  which  they  will  always 
willingly  grant.  By  this  time  you  will  liave  your  mind 
made  up  whether  you  are  going  to  try  to  win  the  second 
heat  or  not.  If  you  decide  to  go  for  the  heat  and  you 
should  get  a  bad  send-off  or  your  horse  make  a  break  under 
no  circumstance  persist  in  trying  to  win  the  heat.  You  may 
win  it  but  the  chances  are  that  if  you  do  you  will  so  have 
pumped  your  horse  out  that  it  will  cost  you  the  race.  In 
driving  a  heat  never  forget  that  a  mile  is  a  long  way  for  a 
horse  to  go  at  a  high  rate  of  speed.  If  you  brush  your 
horse  a  quarter  or  half  at  anything  like  the  top  of  his  speed 

22 


332  LIFE   WITH   THE   TROTTERS, 

that  is  as  far  as  you  can  naturallj'^  expect  liim  to  go.  If 
you  do  not  give  liim  a  breathing  speR  he  will  either  break 
or  slow  up,  two  things  you  want  to  avoid,  I  think  the 
safest  plan  is  to  keei3  a  little  jDOwer  and  reserve  speed  in 
your  horse  until  the  last  struggle,  then  drive  him  in  a  man- 
ner to  try  and  get  his  very  best  effort,  and  the  chances  are  that 
by  this  time  your  oi)ponents  ary  pretty  well  trotted  out,  and 
if  you  do  not  win  you  will  have  the  satisfaction  of  knowing 
you  have  made  the  very  best  effort  under  the  circum- 
stances. If  after  you  win  a  heat  or  two  in  a  race  and 
find  your  horse  distressed  and  no  other  horse  that  looks 
dangerous  has  two  heats,  be  sure  and  lay  your  horse  up  for 
one  heat  at  least.  You  will  be  surprised  what  a  relief  it 
"will  be  to  him,  and  if  he  is  anything  like  a  game  horse  he 
will  come  back  with  renewed  vigor  and  make  'a  good  fight 
for  the  money. 

In  scoring  your  horse  you  can  save  him  a  good  deal  by 
keeping  a  sharp  lookout  for  what  the  chances  are  for  get- 
ting the  word.  Never  score  him  any  more  that  is  absolutely 
necessary.  If  you  score  a  horse  fifteen  or  twenty  times,  as 
X  have  often  seen  done,  it  will  distress  him  more  and  tax 
his  strength  to  a  greater  extent  than  it  would  to  trot  a 
heat.  Be  very  careful  in  a  heat  about  going  out  wide  on 
the  turns.  If  one  man  has  the  pole  and  the  other  is  out  in 
the  middle  of  the  track  and  goes  around  both  turns  of  a 
mile  track  in  that  position  the  X)ole  horse  would  have  five  or 
six  yards  the  best  of  it,  which  would  give  him  the  heat  to  a 
certainty,  barring  accident.  I  think  it  much  safer  to  trail 
around  the  turn  and  take  the  chance  of  getting  through  on 
the  straight  side. .  Never  run  into  an  opponent  willfully  or 
do  any  thing  to  him  that  you  would  not  be  willing  to  have  him 
do  to  you  under  the  same  circumstances,  but  if  anyone  un- 
dertakes to  crowd  or  interfere  with  you  in  a  wrongful  manner 
do  not  have  any  delicacy  about  trpng  to  make  him  take  his 
place.  I  consider  it  a  very  bad  thing  for  a  driver  to  get  a 
rex)utation  of  allowing  people  to  push  him  about,  as  there 
are  always  plenty  of  men  willing  to  take  advantage  of  you 


LIFE   AVITir   THE   TKOTTERS.  333 

if  they  think  you  will  stand  it.  Give  them  to  understand 
that  you  know  what  your  rights  are  and  that  you  are  bound 
to  have  them  at  any  and  all  times.  In  that  way  you  are 
not  liable  to  have  much  trouble  with  the  "boys  building 
fences  to  try  and  stop  you  from  going  through,  etc. 

If  it  comes  to  a  long  race  and  it  is  postponed  from  dark- 
ness or  any  other  cause  you  will  find  there  is  no  time  in  your 
experience  where  good  care  and  attention  will  count  for 
more  on  your  horse  than  right  here.  After  having  him 
properly  cooled  out  and  in  shape  to  feed  after  the  race,  if  he 
is  a  delicate  feeder  give  him  anything  to  eat  or  drink  that 
you  think  will  stimulate  his  ax3i3etite.  If  he  will  not  eat 
get  your  veterinary  to  give  you  something  for  him  in  the 
way  of  a  tonic.  I  have  often  seen  horses  given  eggs  and 
milk  in  a  case  of  this  kind,  with  a  little  stimulant  added  in 
the  waj'  of  whisky  or  wine.  If  the  horse  is  a  good  feeder 
give  him  what  you  consider  a  fair  feed  of  oats  and  hay,  and 
plenty  of  water ;  the  following  morning  have  him  led  out  at 
the  end  of  the  halter  in  the  grass  and  dew  and  let  him  have 
some  grass  to  eat.  Thirty  minutes  before  the  time  for  the 
race  to  be  called  take  him  out  and  jog  him  two  or  three  miles 
moderately  and  give  him  a  slow  working  mile.  The  great 
trouble  with  people  going  out  to  give  a  horse  a  slow 
mile  is  that  they  drive  some  parts  of  it  too  fast  and  do  not 
rate  the  horse  prox)erly.  I  remember  of  seeing  one  of  the 
star  i^erformers  in  a  postponed  race  badly  handled  in  this 
resj)ect.  The  driver  took  her  out  and  in  warming  her  up 
drove  her  a  quarter  in  thirty-two  seconds  on  as  hot  a  day 
as  I  ever  saw  on  a  race-track.  I  concluded  to  watch  her 
closely  in  a  race  and  see  what  the  result  would  be.  In  the 
first  heat  she  led  the  first  seven-eighths  of  a  mile,  then 
stopped  and  was  beaten  out  by  all  the  other  horses.  As  I 
looked  her  over  after  the  heat  she  was  greatly  distressed  in 
wind  and  limb  and  I  was  satisfied  at  the  time  that  the  quar- 
ter she  got  in  thirty-two  seconds  caused  her  to  lose  the  heat. 
If  you  start  in  a  j)ostponedrace  and  none  of  your  opponents 
has  two  heats  you  will  find  it  a  pretty  safe  plan  to  lay  up  a 


334  LIFE   WITH   THE  TROTTERS. 

lieat  there.  As  a  rule  most  men  rush  out  and  try  to  win  the 
first  heat  in  a  posti)oned  race.  I  have  tried  laying  up  a  few 
times,  and  always  with  good  success.  If  you  are  in  a  race 
and  have  no  chance  to  win  see  how  careful  you  can  be  with 
your  horse  and  how  little  use  you  can  make  of  him.  In  that 
way  he  may  be  good  enough  to  win  the  next  race  where  he 
would  nt)t  be  if  you  gave  him  a  bruising  contest  in  which  he 
had  no  chance  to  win.  Never  take  a  chance  of  straining 
your  horse  unless  you  are  obliged  to. 

While  trotting  a  race  if  the  track  has  become  muddy  be 
sure  and  have  on  your  mud  shoes,  which  you  should 
always  have  fitted  to  the  horse  before  you  start  on  your 
campaign,  and  in  that  way  when  you  need  them  you  will 
need  only  to  have  them  nailed  on,  which  any  blacksmith 
can  do  with  little  trouble.  Always  be  sure  to  have  in  your 
outfit  blacksmith's  tools  enough  to  take  off  or  put  on  a 
shoe  at  any  time;  and  also  have  an  assorted  lot  of  Putnam 
nails.  They  have  been  thoroughly  tested  and  have  proven 
themselves  without  a  doubt  the  best  nails  you  can  use. 
You  may  think  that  the  nails  in  a  shoe  do  not  amount  to 
much,  but  if  you  use  one  or  two  worthless  nails  they  may 
break  off,  and  if  the  horse  loses  his  shoe  in  the  deciding 
heat,  you  will  be  very  apt  to  lose  your  ip.oney  along  with 
the  shoe. 

Do  not  be  afraid  to  give  your  horse  plenty  to  eat  during 
a  long,  hard  race.  I  do  not  think  that  at  such  times  hay 
does  a  horse  much  good.  He  wants  something  more  stim- 
ulating. To  my  mind  oatmeal  gruel  is  one  of  the  best  things 
I  ever  tried.  A  couple  of  hours  before  the  race  take  your 
oatmeal  and  pour  boiling  water  on  it;  then  let  it  stand  until 
it  is  thoroughly  cooled,  and  in  that  way  you  will  get  all 
the  strength  out  of  the  oatmeal  and  secure  a  very  pleasant 
drink  for  your  horse.  I  think  a  few  oats  between  heats 
very  good  for  horses.  The  best  thing  in  the  way  of  a  stim- 
ulant I  ever  tried  for  a  horse  was  cliami)agne  and  Seltzer 
water.  Take  a  pint  of  champagne  and  half  a  pint  of  Seltzer 
water;  give  that  to  your  horse  when  he  is  tired  and  you 


LIFE   WITH   THE  TROTTEES.  335 

will  be  surjprised  what  an  effect  it  will  have  on  him.  I  gave 
this  drink  to  Mambrino  Sparkle  very  often  in  those  long, 
hard  races  she  went.  I  think  whisky  and  heavier  liquors 
given  to  a  horse  oftentimes  have  a  bad  effect.  Some  people 
give  a  horse  a  shower  bath  of  cold  water  in  case  he  shows 
extreme  distress  from  heat  or  other  causes,  I  do  not  like 
this  treatment,  and  think  it  is  very  dangerous.  My  i)lan  in 
case  a  horse  is  distressed  in  his  wind  or  any  other  cause  and 
does  not  scrape  out  freely  is  to  give  him  a  s^^onge  bath  with 
warm  water  of  the  same  temperature  you  would  use  on 
yourself  for  a  similar  purpose.  After  scraping  the  water 
out  of  him  as  much  as  you  can,  have  some  stimulating 
liquor  warmed  to  the  same  degree  of  heat  as  the  water  and 
give  the  horse  a  thorough  bathing  with  it.  In  using  washes 
for  a  horse' s  legs  or  body  be  very  careful  you  know  what 
you  are  doing.  I  have  seen  a  great  deal  of  this  so-called 
wash  used  that  I  am  satisiied  does  more  harm  than  good. 
There  are  two  things  that  I  have  used  with  perfect  satisfac- 
tion: Pond's  Extract  and  Perrin's  Bodj^  and  Leg  Wash. 
I  find  there  is  a  great  deal  of  counterfeit  in  the  Pond's 
Extract  which  people  peddle  about  and  sell  because  it  is 
cheap.  Don' t  use  it  if  it  is  given  to  you  for  nothing.  After 
your  race  is  over  I  think  it  a  good  thing  before  you  move 
on  to  the  next  town  to  give  your  horse  one  day  of  absolute 
rest  if  possible.  Feed  him  moderately,  have  him  either  led 
to  the  halter  or  turned  out  into  the  X)addock  if  you  can,  but 
do  not  put  the  harness  on  and  give  him  a  day's  work. 
What  he  wants  more  than  anything  after  a  race  is  a  chance 
to  let  his  nervous  organization  get  back  to  its  normal  con- 
dition. While  he  is  having  this  day's  rest  if  there  are  any 
sores  or  weak  p>laces  about  him  you  will  have  an  excellent 
opportunity  to  nurse  and  doctor  them,  and  by  so  doing  he 
will  not  look  at  the  end  of  the  campaign  as  if  he  had  come 
from  the  Russian  war  instead  of  the  hands  of  a  horse  trainer. 
And  now  in  regard  to  shipping.  Years  ago  this  was 
looked  upon  as  a  matter  attended  with  a  good  deal  of  dan- 
ger, but  in  these  times  with  our  improved  railroads  and 


336  LIFE   WITH   THE  TROTTEllS. 

cars  there  are  veiy  few  accidents  considering  the  number  of 
horses  being  shipioed  about.  Never  ship  a  horse  in  an  ordi- 
nary freight  or  cattle  car,  for  several  reasons.  First,  if  you 
meet  with  an  accident,  the  cars  will  break  up  like  so  many 
dry-goods  boxes.  There  is  no  way  of  ventilating  them,  and 
to  put  half  a  dozen  horses  in  an  ordinary  freight  car  on  a 
hot  day  will  do  them  more  harm  than  you  can  undo  in  a 
month.  Some  of  the  wealthier  owners  have  private  cars 
built  expressly  to  ship  their  stables  in.  This  is  the  most 
convenient  and  comfortable  way.  The  Arms  Palace  Car 
Company  of  Chicago  have  met  a  long  felt  want  with  horse 
shippers  by  constructing  a  line  of  cars  on  scientific  princi- 
ples expressly  for  that  trade.  Their  new  cars  built  solely 
for  trotting  and  race  horses  are  a  marvel  of  comfort  and 
strength.  A  trainer  can  hire  from  them  a  car  by  the  month 
at  a  very  moderate  price,  and  it  is  large  enough  to  transport 
his  horses,  wagons,  sulkies,  men  and  baggage  and  whatever 
feed  it  is  necessary  for  him  to  have.  The  ventilation  is  per- 
fect and  there  is  capacity  for  carrying  plenty  of  water  for 
the  horses,  which  I  think  is  a  very  essential  thing,  as  in 
going  from  one  i)art  of  the  country  to  another,  and  using 
different  kinds  of  water  is  almost  certain  to  have  a  bad 
effect  on  the  animals.  Especially  is  this  the  case  if  they 
have  any  chronic  disease  of  the  kidneys. 

Always  ship  your  horses  by  passenger  train.  The  dif- 
ference in  expense  does  not  amount  to  anything  in  compar- 
ison with  the  wear  and  tear  there  is  on  your  horse  in  being 
jolted  over  the  country  in  a  freight  train.  In  getting  ready 
to  move  take  everything  you  actually  need,  and  no  more. 
I  think  it  a  grand  thing  to  take  oats  and  hay  enough  to  last 
out  the  campaign.  When  you  go  to  a  strange  town  you 
may  have  trouble  in  finding  the  best  hay  and  oats,  and  if 
you  have  to  feed  your  horses  something  that  is  poor  it  will 
be  sure  to  have  a  bad  effect  on  them.  It  is  an  easy  matter 
to  have  your  hay  put  up  in  small  bales  so  that  it  can  be 
handled  without  any  trouble  and  a  few  of  these  will  last 
an  ordinary  stable  of  trotters  some  time.     "When  it  comes 


LIFE   WITH   THE  TROTTERS.  337 

to  tlie  oats  I  do  not  believe  in  feeding  extra  lieavy  ones. 
I  think  oats  weighing  thirty-two  pounds  to  the  bushel  are 
more  easily  digested,  and  you  are  less  liable  to  overfeed 
the  horse  than  you  are  with  heavier  ones.  Never  keep  your 
feed  where  it  is  liable  to  absorb  an^^  unpleasant  odors,  as 
grain,  hay  and  water  mil  very  easily  become  affected  from 
this  cause.  I  think  horses  are  often  affected  with  malaria 
and  other  kindred  diseases  the  same  as  the  human  race  and 
from  the  same  causes.  You  train  a  horse  at  a  race-track 
where  the  trainers  and  grooms  all  have  the  fever  and  ague 
and  you  will  find  it  impossible  to  bring  him  to  anything 
like  perfect  condition.  In  housing  your  oats  keep  them  in 
a  clean,  dry  place.  Be  sure  that  no  rats  or  other  animals 
get  a  chance  to  run  over  them,  because  if  they  do  and  your 
horse  is  the  least  bit  delicate  it  will  get  him  off  his  feed. 
I  have  attached  to  my  granary  one  of  Cleaves  &  Co.'s  pa- 
tent grain  separators,  which  is  an  invention  that  I  think  no 
stable  should  be  without.  If  you  want  to  tind  out  liow 
much  refuse  matter  will  be  stored  in  a  hundred  bushels  of 
oats,  lun  the  oats  through  this  machine  and  I  think  you 
will  be  surj^rised  at  the  result.  In  loading  your  traps  wrap 
your  sulkies  with  cloth  so  that  they  will  not  scratch  or  mar. 
Have  your  stalls  nicely  bedded  down  with  clean  sawdust, 
then  back  your  horses  into  the  stalls  and  tie  them  each  way. 
Have  your  stalls  about  five  feet  wid^e  and  seven  or  eight 
feet  in  length,  and  store  your  baggage  in  the  car  where  it 
will  be  out  of  the  way  and  not  liable  to  cause  harm  should 
your  car  meet  with  accident.  Always  have  a  car  that  has 
two  sets  of  doors  on  each  side  and  never  under  any  circum- 
stances block  up  the  doors,  as  if  your  car  takes  fire  or  if 
you  get  tumbled  down  a  bank  you  want  to  be  able  to  get 
everything  out  at  a  moment's  notice.  In  traveling  keep 
your  car  cool;  at  the  same  time  do  not  let  a  horse  stand  in 
a  draft,  as  it  does  not  take  long  to  founder  a  horse  if  he  is 
in  that  i)osition.  Give  the  animals  all  the  water  they  want, 
and  be  careful  and  not  overfeed  them,  jjarticularly  if  you 
are  on  a  long  trip.     The  worst  thing  about  shipping  horses 


338  LIFE  WITH   THE  TROTTEES. 

is  the  want  of  exercise.  A  horse  that  is  used  to  being  ex- 
ercised every  day,  if  made  to  stand  still  for  any  great  length 
of  time  and  overfed  would  be  more  or  less  liable  to  conges- 
tion and  other  difficulties.  Some  horses  are  troubled  with 
swelling  of  the  legs.  Here  I  think  the  bandage  is  more 
useful  than  in  any  other  place.  Have  some  mild,  cooling 
lotion,  keep  your  bandages  wet  with  ice  water,  and  have 
the  legs  moderately  rubbed  by  hand.  I  think  this  treat- 
ment will  go  as  far  toward  keeping  the  legs  in  a  normal 
condition  as  anything  that  can  be  done.  If  a  horse  is  in 
first-class  condition  and  sound  every  way  he  can  stand  a 
heap  of  railroad  travel.  To  show  how  little  efi'ect  it  will 
have  on  some  horses,  I  took  Rarus  to  California  the  fall  of 
'78  and  in  less  than  forty-eight  hours  after  he  arrived  there 
trotted  him  an  exhibition  in  which  he  went  the  first  mile 
in  2:14  and  repeated  in  2: 14 J.  I  think  you  want  to  be  care- 
ful about  giving  your  horse  any  rapid  work  shortly  after 
coming  ofi*  the  cars.  I  find  there  is  more  danger  of  their 
becoming  corded  in  the  muscles  after  a  railroad  trip  than  at 
almost  any  other  time.  Remember  also  that  a  horse  gets  a 
certain  amount  of  work  in  a  car,  the  constant  motion  of  the 
train  acting  upon  the  muscles  will  sometimes  key  a  horse 
up  more  than  a  severe  day' s  work.  If  you  have  your  horse 
in  good  condition,  trot  him  a  race  once  a  week,  ship  him 
from  one  town  to  another,  you  will  find  there  is  no  possible 
chance  of  his  being  short  of  work.  The  season  I  had  J.  Q. 
I  trotted  him  from  Detroit  to  Hartford,  and  the  fastest 
working  mile  he  got  in  all  that  time  was  2:35.  I  occasion- 
ally brushed  him  through  the  stretch  a  2:26  gait,  and  with 
that  kind  of  work  he  made  the  star  performances  of  his 
life.  In  warming  a  horse  up  for  a  race  and  joii  find  him 
sore  or  tied  up  from  any  cause,  don't  be  afraid  to  give  him 
a  couple  of  slow  heats.  If  you  have  a  horse  that  has  a 
habit  of  throwing  his  head  in  the  air  when  he  breaks,  or  at 
other  times,  do  not  make  the  mistake  of  putting  short 
martingales  on  him,  or,  what  some  people  use  at  times,  a 
standing  martingale.     With  his  head  checked  up  with  an 


LIFE   WITH   THE  TEOTTEES.  339 

over-clieck  and  short  martingales  you  have  him  in  a  position 
to  torture  him  witliout  any  relief.  The  best  plan  in  this 
case,  I  think,  is  to  put  what  we  call  a  standing  halter 
on  him.  Have  a  halter  made  to  fit  his  head,  and  fasten 
your  standing  martingale  into  that  instead  of  into  the  bit. 
Have  your  martingales,  if  you  drive  him  with  any,  long 
enough  so  they  will  not  cause  any  friction  on  the  rein  or 
bit  when  the  horse  has  his  head  in  a  natural  position.  Never 
clieck  your  horse  with  any  patent  springs  in  the  check.  He 
will  be  apt  to  get  in  the  habit  of  teetering  his  head  up  and 
down  on  the  check  in  a  disagreeable  way.  Always  remem- 
ber in  training  and  driving  a  trotting  horse  that  the  horse 
stands  to  you  in  the  same  position  that  a  merchant's  bank 
account  does  to  him.  Every  time  your  horse  makes  an  effort 
for  you  you  make  a  draft  on  your  bank  account,  so  it  stands 
you  in  hand  to  be  very  careful  how  you  draw  on  the  horse's 
strength,  and  use  every  effort  at  all  times  to  protect  him 
in  every  way. 

Trotting  stallions  have  generally  been  considered  rather 
uncertain  track  performers  With  few  exceptions  I  think 
this  has  been  the  case,  especially  where  they  have  been 
used  for  breeding  purposes  before  their  racing  career  began. 
The  only  genuine  race -stallions  that  I  call  to  mind  now  are 
Hannis,  Wedge  wood,  Director,  Jerome  Eddy,  Monroe  Chief 
and  Phallas,  these  six  having  in  their  time  gone  through 
the  grand  circuit  and  showed  the  ability  to  win  a  majority 
of  their  races  in  some  one  campaign.  They  were  all  notably 
game  horses,  but  as  two  of  the  lot  are  by  one  sire  it  may  be 
well  to  allude  to  them  somewhat  in  detail.  These  two  are 
Director  and  Phallas,  one  with  a  record  of  2:17,  while  the 
other  has  2:13f  to  ]iis  credit,  that  mark  having  been  obtained 
in  the  fourth  heat  of  a  race  against  otlier  horses,  while  the 
record  of  Director  was  made  in  one  of  the  best  contested 
battles  it  was  ever  my  good  fortune  to  witness.  These  two 
stallions  I  consider  first-class  race-horses,  and  I  think  I  know 
whereof  I  speak,  as  they  both  made  their  best  records  in 
races  where  I  was  a  contender.     Both  of  them  are  bv  Dicta- 


340  LIFE   WITH  THE   TROTTERS. 

tor,  a  stallion  that,  botli  on  account  of  his  superlatively 
good  breeding  and  the  remarkable  performances  of  his  full 
brother  Dexter  should  never  have  been  neglected  during  the 
best  years  of  his  life,  as  he  certainly  was  during  the  seasons 
he  made  in  New  York  and  the  first  part  of  his  career  in 
Kentucky,  this  neglect  being  so  marked  that  at  the  time  he 
was  thirteen  years  old  he  had  sired  barely  a  dozen  colts. 
But  when  Director,  Phallas  and  Jay-Eye-See  came  out  in 
one  season  Dictator  attained  a  fame  equaled  by  that  of  no 
other  trotting  sire  of  the  day,  and  the  extreme  speed,  race- 
horse qualities  of  his  get  were  the  theme  of  conversation 
among  horsemen  and  breeders.  I  think  that  Jay-Eye-See 
is  one  of  the  best  examples  of  intelligent  breeding  I  have 
ever  seen.  As  conservative  a  man  as  Mr.  Doble  told  me, 
after  driving  him  a  losing  race  that  he  was  the  only  horse 
he  had  ever  seen  that  put  him  in  mind  of  Dexter,  and  lie 
was  very  positive  that  sooner  or  later  he  would  beat  every 
record  that  had  been  made  by  a  trotting  horse,  which  sub- 
sequent events  amply  proved.  His  performances,  as  well 
as  those  of  Phallas  and  Director,  greatly  increased  the 
value  of  his  sire,  and  Dictator  has  for  several  years  stood 
at  the  highest  fee  of  any  stallion  in  the  land:  $500.  He  is 
the  property  of  Maj.  H.  C.  McDowell  &  Son,  who  also 
have  on  their  historic  farm,  "Ashland,"  the  stallion  King 
Rene,  a  son  of  Belmont  whose  get  are  entering  the  2:30  list 
every  year,  while  their  beauty  of  form  and  elegance  of  car- 
riage have  gained  for  them  and  their  sire  the  blue  ribbons 
on  many  occasions  where  the  bluest  blood  in  the  land  was 
shown  against  them,  and  for  several  seasons,  when  the 
McDowell  farm  made  a  specialty  of  these  show-ring  exhibi- 
tions King  Rene  and  his  sons  and  daughters  were  easily 
victorious  over  all  competitors.  In  the  race  where  Director 
made  his  record  of  2:17  I  drove  the  bay  gelding  Wilson 
against  him,  winning  two  heats  and  making  a  dead  heat 
with  Director,  giving  AVilson  that  day  a  record  of  2:16J. 
This  horse  was  by  George  Wilkes,  a  horse  that  had  been 
owned  during  the  major  part  of  his  life  by  my  old-time 


LIFE   WITH   THE  TROTTEES.  341 

friend  and  patron  Z.  E.  Simmons,  who  was,  at  the  time  of 
which  I  write,  enjoying  the  ease  and  comfort  of  a  breeder's 
life  at  Lexington,  Ky.,  wliere  he  lias  gathered  about  him 
some  of  the  most  notable  sons  of  the  brown  stallion  that  he 
loved  so  well  and  that  won  so  many  races  for  him. 

And  while  on  the  subject  of  trotting  stallions  I  want  to 
say  something  about  one  that  attracted  my  attention  in  a 
marked  degree  the  first  time  I  ever  saw  him,  and  that  I 
then  and  there  predicted  would  some  day  in  the  near  future 
prove  himself  one  of  the  fastest  and  best  in  the  country. 
This  horse  is  Jerome  Eddy,  and  he  is  also  another  exami^le 
of  the  truth  of  my  argument  that  great  horses,  like  poets, 
are  born,  and  not  made.  The  first  time  I  saw  Jerome  Eddy 
was  at  Jackson,  Mich. ,  where  he  took  part  in  a  race  against 
some  of  the  best  horses  in  their  class  of  that  day.  As  I  sat 
under  a  tree  with  my  friend  Don  Robinson  watching  a  heat 
that  I  had  no  financial  interest  in  in  a  lazy  sort  of  a  way,  I 
saw  a  large  bay  horse  pu'l  out  of  the  ruck  on  the  extreme 
outside  of  -the  track  and  go  by  his  field  of  horses  in  about 
the  same  manner  that  Rams  would  have  done.  IS'ot  know- 
ing the  horse  I  asked  Mr.  Robinson  what  his  name  was,  and 
he  replied  that  it  was  Jerome  Eddy,  a  horse  that  belonged 
to  a  couple  of  farmeis  at  Owosso.  I  remarked  that  the 
Michigan  farmers  had  what  Bill  Woodruff  called  "  a  sure 
enough  trotter."  I  was  so  much  interested  in  the  animal 
that  after  the  heat  I  went  to  the  stable  to  get  a  closer  look 
at  him,  and  found  a  bay  horse  about  sixteen  hands  high 
with  feet  and  legs  that  looked  as  though  they  had  been 
made  to  order,  with  a  liead  shaped  well  enough  to  have 
been  the  central  figure  of  an  oil  painting.  The  following 
week  I  saw  him  in  another  race,  and  his  performance  there 
only  served  to  increase  my  good  opinion  of  him,  and  before  the 
season  was  over  I  had  the  pleasure  and  satisfaction  of  hav- 
ing my  judgment  verified  by  Jerome  Eddy  obtaining  a 
record  of  2:16|-  in  a  contested  race  against  one  of  the  best 
fields  out  that  year,  and  it  was  the  opinion  of  most  people 
who  saw  the  race  that  he  could  easily  have  beaten  the  best 


342  LIFE    WITH   THE   TKOTTERS. 

stallion  record  of  that  day,  2:15^.  To  sliow  breeders  liow 
the  fact  of  having  a  horse  developed  will  increase  his  value, 
I  maj^  say  that  when  I  first  saw  Jerome  Eddy  his  owners 
asked  for  him,  I  think,  about  $5,000.  After  he  obtained  his 
record  of  2:16|-  he  was  sold  to  H.  C.  Jewett&Co.,  of  Buffalo, 
N.  Y.,  for  $25,000,  and  is  to-day  at  the  head  of  their  great 
breeding  establishment.  The  Messrs.  Jewett  are  firm  in  the 
belief  that  early  maturity  means  early  decay,  and  with  this 
idea  in  view  they  have  not  trained  their  colts  while  young, 
thinking  it  better  to  give  them  an  opi)ortunity  to  be  fully 
developed  in  their  physical  structure  before  they  are  asked 
to  show  their  best  speed.  From  the  standpoint  of  a  man 
who  makes  his  living  by  the  racing  of  a  trotting  horse  they 
have  adoi^ted,  I  think,  the  surest  plan  to  raise  a  family  of 
race  horses.  Of  course  if  a  man  wants  a  fast  colt  the  way 
to  secure  this  is  to  begin  training  him  early,  but  all  our 
best  campaigners  have  been  horses  that  were  iiot  phenom- 
enal as  speedy  youngsters. 

Trotting  or  pacing  horses  with  a  running  mate  has  never 
taken  a  very  strong  hold  on  the  public.  It  seems  to  have 
been  always  rather  spasmodic.  About  once  in  so  often  there 
comes  along  a  horse  that  proves  himself  to  be  able  to  go  well 
with  a  runner;  then  we  have  a  few  races  of  that  sort  and 
then  it  dies  out  again.  The  first  race  of  that  kind  that 
attracted  anything  like  widesx)read  attention  was  the  one 
between  Ethan  Allen  and  Dexter.  At  this  time  Dexter  had 
shown  that  no  horse  lived  that  could  give  him  a  race.  He 
had  demonstrated  his  ability  to  beat  all  comers  one,  two  and 
three  mile  heats  in  harness,  to  wagon  and  under  saddle,  and 
his  owner  was  looking  around  for  new  worlds  to  conquer. 
At  this  time  Mr.  E.  Z.  Simmons  owned  Ethan  Allen,  and 
declared  himself  willing  to  match  Ethan  to  go  with  a  runner 
against  any  horse  in  the  world  in  harness.  The  race  Avas 
made  with  Dexter  and  the  public  said  that  Mr.  Simmons  had 
overmatched  his  horse.  For  once  the  public  was  sadly  mis- 
taken. Mr.  Simmons  placed  the  horse  in  Mace's  hands  to 
train  and  drive  and  said:  "  Dan, you  train  him  and  bring  liim 


LIFE   WITH   THE   TROTTEKS.  343 

to  the  track  in  condition  the  day  of  the  race,  and  I  will  make 
it  the  best  day's  work  that  you  have  ever  done."  Ethan 
had  been  used  on  the  road  for  a  long  while  and  Mr.  Simmons 
had  always  said  that  he  had  never  had  a  horse  with  him 
that  could  run  as  fast  as  he  could  trot,  and  was  sure  that 
with  a  good  running  mate  he  could  go  a  mile  close  to  two 
minutes.  Mace  had  for  a  running  mate  Cliarlotte  F.,  a 
thoroughbred  bay  mare  about  fifteen  and  one-half  hands 
high,  that  he  bought  from  Dr.  Weldon.  In  appearance  she 
did  not  have  much  of  the  thoroughbred  about  her,  being 
rather  a  strong  mare  on  short  legs  with  a  good  deal  of  bone; 
went  with  her  head  rather  low,  could  trot  a  three-and-a-half 
gait  and  run  a  mile  in  harness  close  to  two  minutes.  Her 
disposition  w^as  perfect.  She  was  without  exception  the  best 
horse  of  that  kind  I  have  ever  seen.  I  find  that  most  run- 
ners get  rank  and  want  to  rush  off  after  being  driven  a  few 
times.  When  this  race  was  made  I  consider  that  Mace  was 
in  his  jDrime,  and  with  a  backer  like  Mr.  Simmons  he  had 
the  nerve  to  try  anything.  In  talking  the  matter  over  one 
day  with  Mr.  Simmons  in  my  presence  Mace  made  a  remark 
that  I  never  forgot.  Mr.  Simmons  was  cautioning  him  about 
training  Ethan  when  Mace  remarked:  "Never  mind  Ethan; 
have  the  runner  in  good  shape,  as  he  is  the  one  that  has  got 
to  do  the  work,"  and  went  on  to  say  that  a  man  might  as 
well  undertake  to  run  an  engine  without  paying  any  atten- 
tion to  making  steam  as  to  try  to  win  a  race  of  that  kind 
without  having  his  runner  in  first-class  condition,  and  I  doubt 
whether  or  no  in  all  liis  active  life  he  ever  said  anything 
that  contained  more  facts  in  the  same  number  of  words  than 
that. 

I  will  describe  as  near  as  near  as  I  can  how  Mace  trained 
and  drove  his  team  in  the  race.  Ethan  was  a  liorse  that  did 
not  need  a  great  deal  of  work,  always  seeming  to  have  his 
speed,  and  Mace  worked  him  in  single  harness  a  great  many 
slow  miles.  After  he  had  his  legs  and  body  thoroughly 
hardened  and  in  shape  he  would  occasionally  hitch  Ethan 
up  with  a  runner  and  brush  him  a  little  better  than  a  2:20 


344  LIFE   WITH    THE   TEOTTERS, 

gait.  He  gave  Charlotte  F.  stronger  work,  and  generally- 
after  working  lier  and  Etlian  together  he  would  take  her  out 
to  a  sulky  or  skeleton  wagon  and  drive  her  a  good  stiff  mile, 
say  in  about  2:15,  and  occasionally  he  put  the  saddle  on 
with  a  light  boy  and  ran  her  through  the  stretch  as  fast  as 
she  could  go.  I  think  that  one  day  I  saw  her  run  a  mile  in 
1:50  with  a  boy  on  her.  There  are  a  great  many  trotters 
that  when  you  hitch  them  to  a  running  mate  have  to  be  shod 
heavier  in  order  to  be  balanced,  than  they  do  driven  any 
other  way.  That  arises  from  the  fact  of  the  runner  taking  all 
the  weight  and  dragging  them  too  and  going  along  at  that  tre- 
mendous pace,  and  then  again  the  driver  does  not  have  the 
same  chance  to  watch  them  he  would  driving  one  horse 
alone.  Ethan  Allen  was  a  perfectly  balanced  horse  and 
needed  no  extra  shoeing,  and  was  the  only  one  I  ever  saw 
that  was  a  first-class  breaker  going  that  way  rigged.  While 
Mace  was  conditioning  Ethan  Allen  and  Charlotte  F.,  Mr. 
Simmons  was  not  idle.  In  those  times  such  well-known 
sj)orting  men  as  John  Morrissey,  Harry  Genet,  John  C. 
Heenan,  Ned  and  George  Maynard,  Bariy  Cornell,  Louis 
Burrell  and  a  host  of  others  that  I  could  name  stood  ready 
to  bet  their  last  dollar  on  a  horse-race  that  they  thought  well 
of.  They,  together  with  the  owners  of  Dexter,  thought  the 
horse  did  not  live  that  could  beat  their  favorite.  In  the 
betting  Dexter  was  a  favorite  four  to  one.  The  public  were 
anxious  to  back  Dexter  at  those  odds  and  Mr.  Simmons  was 
just  as  willing  to  back  his  horse  and  announced  publicly 
that  he  would  bet  all  comers,  be  they  great  or  small. 

About  ten  days  before  the  race  Mace,  in  a  rather  open 
way,  told  the  boys  that  took  care  of  the  team  to  take  them 
to  the  blacksmith  shop,  as  he  wanted  to  have  them  shod. 
But  as  it  came  out  after  the  race,  instead  of  going  to  the 
blacksmith  shop  with  them  they  went  to  the  old  Union 
track  where  Mr.  Simmons  was  waiting  for  them,  and  gave 
them  a  trial,  and  it  was  so  satisfactory  that  Mr.  Simmons 
went  back  to  New  York  that  night  and  bet  everybody  to  a 
standstill.     The  result  of  this  race  shows  how  near  a  man 


LIFE  WITH   THE  TROTTEKS.  345 

may  come  to  winning  a  great  deal  of  money  and  yet  not 
do  it.  Twenty-four  hours  before  the  day  of  the  race  Char- 
lotte F.  got  cast  in  the  stall  and  lamed  herself  in  the 
shoulder  and  as  the  boys  said  "here  was  a  pickle."  At 
this  time  Jim  Dougrey  who  has  since  made  himself  famous 
as  a  politician  and  a  horse -driver  and  a  good  one  at  that, 
was  a  boy.  He  had  in  his  stable  an  old  brown  horse  called 
Brown  George  that  he  had  been  working  with  a  runner  that 
belonged  to  Fred  Pence,  a  black  horse  that  had  been  ridden 
in  the  war  and  had  been  carried  North.  But  Dougrey  rather 
condemned  him  saying  that  after  going  three-quarters  of  a 
mile  he  would  quit,  but  as  he  was  the  best  one  in  sight  they 
were  obliged  to  take  him  if  any.  The  council  of  war 
between  Mace  and  Simmons,  Mace  insisted  in  paying  for- 
feit in  the  match  and  in  that  way  having  all  the  outside 
money  declared  off,  saying  that  he  would  not  trust  all  that 
money  on  a  horse  he  knew  nothing  about.  Mr.  Simmons 
was  anxious  to  have  the  race  stand  and  go  for  all  the  money, 
but  finally  gave  Mace  his  way  and  paid  forfeit  in  the  match 
and  the  outside  bets  were  all  declared  off  and  they  arranged 
to  go  for  a  purse  given  by  the  proprietor  of  the  track. 
Everybody  in  the  vicinity  of  New  York  was  present  to  see 
the  race,  from  Commodore  Vanderbilt  to  the  bootblacks, 
and  in  the  betting  after  the  new  race  had  been  arranged 
Dexter  was  the  favorite  at  any  odds,  $1,100  to  $10  being 
offered  by  his  backers.  Regardless  of  Mace's  caution  Mr. 
Simmons  bet  everybody  that  the  team  would  win,  and  was 
the  only  man  in  all  that  vast  throng  that  had  the  slightest 
idea  that  Ethan  would  win.  That  he  did  so  is  a  matter  of 
history,  and  one  of  the  heats,  done  in  2:15,  was  the  best 
mile  gone  by  a  trotter  up  to  that  time,  any  way  rigged,  and 
Dexter  was  timed  separately  in  2:16. 

As  Mace' s  system  of  hitching  a  trotter  and  running  mate 
has  never  been  altered  much  I  will  give  it  as  I  saw  it  that 
day.  In  hooking  the  team  Dan's  idea  was  to  not  only 
hitch  the  runner  so  that  he  would  draw  all  the  weight  but 
have  him  able  to  also  help  tlie  trotter  along.     He  had  a 


346  LIFE  WITH  THE  TROTTERS, 

strong  breechiiig  for  tlie  trotter,  covered  with  sheepskin. 
He  had  a  wide  girth  made  of  strong  canvas  to  go  around 
the  horse  under  tlie  harness  saddle  ;  made  it  with  buckles 
and  straps,  so  as  to  be  able  to  girt  the  horse  moderately 
close  vdih  it ;  had  the  saddle  of  his  harness  fastened  to  this 
girth,  and  in  that  way  he  was  able  to  girt  it  tight  enough 
to  keep  the  harness  in  place.  From  the  breeching  he  had 
side  straps  to  run  up  and  buckle  into  the  tug  buckles.  He 
also  had  straps  from  the  breeching  runuj)  and  fastened  into 
the  choke-strap  that  ran  to  the  neckyoke  from  the  girth. 
To  keep  the  breeching  from  getting  up  under  the  horse's 
tail,  -s^hicli  it  will  often  do  when  the  animal  is  rigged  in 
that  manner,  he  had  a  steel  shank  made  out  of  steel  wire 
inserted  in  the  hip-strax),  which  went  through  the  back- 
strap  over  the  horse's  hip,  all  the  way,  except  a  coux)le  of 
inches  at  each  end  where  it  buckled  into  the  breeching. 
This  I  find  a  very  good  invention  to  use  on  a  single  liarness 
for  the  same  purpose.  By  hooking  a  horse  in  this  way  all 
the  trotter  had  to  do  was  to  lay  in  the  harness  and  keep 
his  legs  going,  letting  the  runner  do  all  work. 

In  later  days  we  have  had  some  XDhenomenally  fast  time 
with  j)acers  and  running  mates,  as  well  as  with  trotters. 
With  the  pacers  that  way  hitched  the  two  star  performers 
have  been  Westmont  and  Minnie  R.  I  have  already  told 
what  the  mare  did  while  she  was  in  my  stable,  and  it  only 
remains  to  say  of  Westmont  that  Johnny  Cami;)bell,  now  on 
the  running  turf,  drove  him  a  mile  with  running  mate  in  2:01|, 
Peter  Johnston  taking  him  a  little  later  and  doing  the  dis- 
tance in  2:02.  Johnston  came  naturally  by  his  ability  as  a 
driver  of  trotters,  having  been  educated  to  it  while  a  boy  in 
]Michigan,  and  since  then  has  made  a  great  reputation  as  a 
successful  handler  of  stallions,  while  the  good  work  he  did 
with  Bodine  has  been  alluded  to  elsewhere.  With  trotters 
and  running  mates  John  Murphy  and  James  Golden  have 
been  most  successful  of  late  years.  For  benefit  of  my  read- 
ers who  do  not  know  Jimmy  Golden  I  wish  to  say  that  I 
consider  him  well  up  in  everything  appertaining  to  a  trot- 


LIFE  WITH  THE  TEOTTEES,  347 

ting  horse,  from  the  rubbing  cloth  to  the  judges'  stand,  as 
he  is  one  of  the  okl-time  drivers  who  had  to  serve  an 
apprenticeship  at  the  business  wlien  a  boy,  and  one  of  the 
self-made  men  of  the  turf.  John  Murphy  is  perhaps  the 
most  versatile  man  connected  with  the  trotting  turf, 
and  in  the  matter  of  riding  a  trotter  or  i)acer  is  unquestion- 
ably at  the  head  of  his  profession.  To  begin  with  he  was 
the  first  man  to  ride  a  trotter  a  mile  better  than  2:20,  hav- 
ing j)erf  onned  that  feat  when  a  mere  boy,  the  occasion  being 
the  match  made  for  Dexter  to  beat  the  2:19|  of  Flora  Tem- 
ple, then  the  best  on  record,  and  Hiram  AYoodruff,  who 
was  training  Dexter,  paid  Murphy  the  compliment  of  select- 
ing him  as  the  Jocky  on  this  most  important  occasion.  In 
a  j)revious  chapter  I  have  told  how  Murphy  rode  the  pacer 
Billy  BoA^ce  to  his  record  of  2:14|,  a  mark  that  never  was 
beaten  until  last  year. 

When  trotters  and  running  mates  were  in  fashion  a  few 
years  ago,  Murphy  gave  the  bay  gelding  Frank,  that  is  a 
member  of  the  Ethan  Allen  family,  a  mark  of  2:08^  at  that 
way  of  going,  and  this  was  the  best  on  record  until  Golden 
came  out  vrith  H.  B.  Winshij),  another  member  of  the  same 
family,  and  went  the  distance  in  2:06.  Murx)hy  has  ridden 
and  driven  a  great  deal  for  Mr.  Robert  Bonner,  and  on  two 
occasions  when  I  have  seen  him  ride  in  a  manner  that  made 
a  great  imx)ression  on  me.  The  first  trotting  race  I  ever  saw, 
Murphy  rode  the  winner.  I  did  not  at  that  time  consider 
myself  much  of  a  judge  of  trotters^  but  there  was  one  thing 
I  was  sure  of,  that  being  that  I  would  never  see  a  better 
rider  than  JMurphy,  and  on  that  point  I  have  never  changed 
my  mind.  The  last  time  I  saAv  him  on  a  horse's  back  was  a 
few  years  ago  when  I  fell  in  one  bright  morning  with  Mr. 
Robert  Bonner  while  he  was  on  his  way  to  Fleetwood.  Mr. 
Bonner  said  to  me  that  if  I  \vould  accomj)any  him  I  v*'ould 
see  a  man  do  something  better  than  I  had  ever  seen  the 
same  thing  done  before.  I  accepted  the  invitation,  and  when 
we  arrived  at  Fleetwood  Mr.  Bonner  asked  Murphy  to  put 
the  saddle  on  his  mare  Pocahontas  and  ride  her  a  slow,  mile, 

23 


348  LIFE  WITH   THE  TKOTTEES. 

which  he  did,  and  after  giving  her  a  short  breathing  spell 
Mr.  Bonner  told  him  that  if  he  would  ride  the  mare  a  mile 
and  then  guess  within  two  seconds  of  how  well  he  had  ridden 
her  he  would  make  him  a  present.  He  rode  her  the  mile, 
and  if  I  was  sure  of  seeing  a  horse  as  well  ridden  again  I 
would  go  a  long  way  to  see  the  two  perform.  After  riding 
the  mile  Murphy  came  back  and  told  Mr,  Bonner  within  a 
second  of  how  well  he  had  gone,  which  shows  that  he  not  only 
rode  the  mare  well,  but  was  also  a  first-class  judge  of  pace. 
Muri)hy  has  one  grand  thing  in  his  character  that  some  other 
good  drivers  lack,  a  reputation  for  honesty  that  a  king  might 
be  proud  of. 

In  training  a  pair  of  horses  to  go  a  race  in  double  harness, 
do  not  think  that  you  are  obliged  to  give  them  all  their  work 
together.  You  may  have  two  horses  whose  disposition, 
temper,  etc.,  are  wholly  at  variance.  They  may  require 
entirel}^  different  work  to  prepare  them  for  the  same  race. 
If  that  is  the  case  and  you  give  them  all  their  work  together 
one  or  the  other  of  them  is  bound  to  be  out  of  condition  on 
the  day  of  the  race.  The  first  thing  to  do  is  to  decide  how 
you  will  drive  them — that  is  which  horse  you  will  i^ut  on 
the  ofl'  side  and  which  on  the  nigh  side.  Everything  else 
being  equal,  always  put  the  fastest  horse  on  the  off  side.  In 
hitching  a  joair  of  horses  I  would  always  use  a  breeching. 
If  they  make  a  break  you  will  find  that  you  are  in  better 
shape  to  catch  them  with  the  breeching  than  without.  If 
you  have  one  horse  in  the  team  that  you  think  from  lack  of 
education  or  otherwise  ought  to  be  worked  in  double  harness, 
and  his  mate  does  not  need  that  sort  of  work,  get  some  extra 
horse  for  a  mate  and  work  him  in  that  way.  If  your  trotting 
horse  is  of  a  mild  disposition  you  will  find  that  a  running 
horse  is  very  good  to  use  in  this  case.  The  only  thing  to  be 
careful  of  in  using  a  runner  is  not  to  go  too  fast  for  the  trotter. 
Work  them  well  within  themselves  at  all  times.  I  think  it 
is  a  good  idea  to  jog  the  team  often  together  and  give  them 
all  their  slow  work  that  way,  provided  they  work  without 
friction.  In  getting  a  team  rea<iy  for  a  race  I  would  suggest 


LIFE  WITH   THE  TEOTTEES.  349 

to  have  them  warmed  up  in  single  harness  first;  in  that  way 
you  take  the  wire-edge  off  from  them  and  they  are  less  liable 
to  get  to  breaking  in  scoring  in  the  first  heat.  Dun  Walton 
was  considered  by  old-time  judges  to  be  one  of  the  best 
double- team  men  in  the  country.  His  name  may  be  a  little 
strange  to  some  of  the  new  boys  on  the  turf,  but  years  ago 
when  the  Fashion  track  was  the  head  centre  of  trotting  Dun 
Walton  was  almost  as  much  of  a  character  as  Dan  Mace,  and 
a  New  York  gentleman  would  hardly  hitch  up  a  team  with- 
out asking  Dun' s  advice.  I  have  heard  him  express  a  great 
many  good  ideas  that  were  original  with  himself,  and  I  know 
he  often  gave  Mace  advice,  as  in  those  days  double-team 
trotting  was  quite  the  rage. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

Calmar,  a  horse  that  needed  ouly  projjer  shoeing  to  improve  his  record  eight 
seconds  and  make  him  win  good  races — His  gallant  fight  with  Woodford 
Chief  at  Cincinnati— A  kind  word  for  George  A.  Baker,  once  a  promi- 
nent figure  on  the  trotting  turf — How  Lady  De  Jarnette  was  given  a  fast 
record  by  changing  her  check  rein — Hints  to  owners  of  horses — Wilson's 
race  in  which  he  went  a  mile  in  2:16i,  and  the  mistakes  that  caused  him  to 
be  defeated — Sufficient  preparation  is  what  makes  good  campaigners,  while 
lack  of  work  results  disastiously — Fred  Folger's  career  an  illusi ration  of 
this — Why  Budd  Doble  put  tips  on  Jack  the  day  before  the  $10,000  race  at 
Rochester — The  peculiar  manner  in  which  Wolford's  Z.  was  shod  and  how 
it  improved  him — The  pacer  Argyle,  and  the  trotter  Colonel  Lewis — Trot- 
ters affected  in  a  marked  degree  by  changes  of  climate— Little  Gypsy's 
great  race  at  Cleveland — Pen  sketckes  of  noted  characters  on  the  trotting 
turf. 

In  1878,  Mr.  George  Baker  of  Cleveland,  Ohio,  OAvned  a 
bay  gelding  called  Calmar,  that  he  bought  from  Mr.  Charles 
Railley  of  Kentucky,  a  horseman  whose  reputation  in  his 
particular  line  was  ivorld- wide,  he  being  considered  by  good 
judges  the  best  ladies'  and  gentlemen' s  saddle  and  harness 
horse  trainer  in  the  world.  At  this  time  Railley  gave  trot- 
ting horses  some  attention  and  trained  and  drove  Calmar  to 
a  record  of  about  2:30.  He  was  a  very  handsome  bay  horse 
by  Bourbon  Chief,  one  of  the  strongest  made  fellows  I  ever 
saw.  It  would  have  taken,  to  have  fitted  him,  a  "collar  as 
large  as  for  an  ordinary  carriage-horse.  So  well  propor- 
tioned and  evenly  made  was  he,  that  no  one  ever  noticed 
this  peculiarity  about  him  unless  they  looked  him  over 
closely. 

After  leaving  Mr.  Railley' s  stable  Calmar  x>assed through 
the  hands  of  two  or  three  trainers  and  came  to  me  with  his 
record  of  2:30.     The  first  time  I  drove  him  was  at  Utica, 

(350) 


LIFE    WITH   THE  TROTTERS.  351 

where  Mr.  Baker  came  to  me  and  asked  me  to  get  behind 
him  the  last  heat  in  a  race,  which  I  did,  where  he  finished 
last  in  a  large  field  of  horses,  a  place  I  had  noticed  lie  always 
occupied  in  every  race  in  which  I  had  ever  seen  him  started. 
Although  finishing  last,  Calmar  showed  me  so  much  speed 
in  this  heat  that  he  interested  me,  and  after  the  race 
was  over  I  made  an  arrangement  with  Mr.  Baker  to  train 
and  drive  him  the  balance  of  the  season.  On  examination 
I  found  that  he  wore  shin  boots  and  scalpers  behind,  both 
of  which  he  hit  very  hard.  His  hind  feet  were  long  and 
his  ankles  very  much  swollen.  The  first  time  I  drove  him 
in  his  work  I  learned  that  he  hit  himself  very  hard,  when  he 
did  was  sure  to  break,  and  the  minute  you  took  hold  of  the 
bit  to  steady  him,  he  would  commence  to  buck.  But  when 
he  did  trot  he  could  step  a  good  2:20  gait  without  api)arent 
effort.  As  few  people  realize  what  it  will  do  to  a  horse  to 
have  him  continually  hitting  himself,  even  though  you  have 
boots  on  him,  I  will  describe  exactly  how  I  shod  this  horse, 
why  I  did  so,  and  what  effect  it  had  on  him. 

At  that  time  Mace  had  in  his  employ  a  man  of  the  name 
of  George  Staples  as  a  blacksmith,  whose  turf  name,  I  believe, 
was  "  Blacksmith  George  "  and  to  whom  Mace  willed  his 
blacksmith  shop  and  other  j^roperty  of  that  description  at 
the  time  of  his  death,  and  StaiDles  is  still,  I  believe,  the  pro- 
prietor of  the  same  in  Fifty-eighth  street,  New  York  City.  I 
stated  to  Staples  the  facts  about  Calmar  as  I  had  learned 
them,  showed  him  the  boots  where  the  horse  had  hit  them,  and 
then  we  decided  on  the  following  plan  of  shoeing  him.  We 
shortened  his  liind  feet  all  that  we  x^ossibly  could,  my  idea 
being  that  there  would  be  less  strain  on  his  ankles  if  they 
were  made  short  than  if  we  left  them  long.  I  had  a  calked 
shoe  made  that  weighed  twelve  ounces,  made  it  the  longest 
on  the  outside  so  as  to  carry  Calmar' s  hind  feet  outside  of 
his  forward  ones  when  in  motion,  set  his  heels  well  up,  as  I 
had  learned  by  experience  it  was  a  good  thing  to  do  with  a 
horse  that  had  ailing  ankles.  This  idea  I  obtained  from 
Dr.    Roberge,   a  man  of  unlimited  resourses  in  shoeing  a 


352  LIFE  vriTn  the  teotteks. 

lame  horse.  I  had  the  idea  strengthened  in  me  by  seeing 
Mr.  Robert  Bonner  shoe  his  horses  in  the  same  manner. 
We«3.ecided  that  in  jAnce  of  putting  all  the  weight  in  shoe 
on  his  forward  feet  we  would  put  a  light  shoe  on  him  and 
toe- weights.  Calmar  wore  at  this  time  a  sixteen-ounce  shoe. 
We  made  a  ten-ounce  shoe  with  a  spur  to  carry  the  weight, 
after  a  pattern  that  Andy  Porter,  the  j)opular  blacksmith 
of  Chicago  had  once  made  for  me,  which  was  to  have  the 
spur  long  enough  to  reach  up  to  the  top  of  the  horse's  hoof; 
then  have  your  weight  fixed  with  a  set-screw  so  that  you 
could  raise  and  lower  it  on  the  horse's  foot  at  any  point  you 
like. 

I  found  that  Calmar' s  mouth  was  a  good  deal  of  trouble 
to  him;  he  seemed  dreadfully  afraid  of  the  bit,  and  was  the 
first  horse  I  ever  drove  with  a  nose-band.  In  some  of  my 
Western  trips  I  had  seen  the  Mexicans  ride  their  horses 
without  bits  and  with  the  bridle  arranged  across  the  nose. 
This  gave  me  the  notion  of  trying  it  on  Calmar.  I  took  off 
his  over-check,  put  on  a  side-check,  arranged  the  nose-band 
so  that  I  could  buckle  my  reins  into  the  nose-band  and  bits 
at  the  same  time  and  so  that  a  good  deal  of  the  pressure 
would  come  on  the  nose  when  I  took  hold  of  them.  The 
first  day  I  arranged  to  work  him  in  this  way,  George  the 
blacksmith  came  out  to  see  the  effect  the  shoeing  would 
have  on  him.  I  drove  him  the  first  mile  in  2:35,  and  while 
he  did  not  break  he  seemed  very  uneasy  and  acted  very 
much  as  though  he  wanted  to.  In  twenty  minutes  I  drove 
him  another  mile  in  2:30,  which  he  went  without  a  break. 
Before  putting  his  boots  on  I  had  them  rubbed  over  with 
chalk  so  I  could  see  just  where  he  brushed  them.  I  found 
that  he  marked  the  shin  boots  a  little  above  the  ankle  and 
did  not  brush  the  scalpers  a.t  all,  We  decided  that  the  next 
time  we  worked  him  we  would  raise  the  weights  higher 
on  the  spur,  which  we  did  and  I  drove  him  several  heats  in 
about  2:30,  without  a  break  or  without  his  showing  any  dis- 
position to  want  to  break. 

The  following  week  at  Hartford,    where  I  had    him 


LIFE   AVITII  THE  TROTTERS.  353 

entered  in  a  race,  Calmar  sliowed  me  so  much  speed  in  his 
work  that  I  concluded  to  give  him  a  trial  and  if  he  suited 
me  back  him  and  try  and  make  a  little  money  for  myself. 
In  talking  the  matter  over  in  a  quiet  way  with  General 
Turner,  he  advised  me  not  to  put  my  money  on  him  as  he 
had  seen  enough  of  him  to  know  he  was  a  bad  horse.  How- 
ever, I  set  a  day  and  asked  the  General  to  come  out  in  the 
morning  and  time  him  for  me,  which  he  did.  I  drove  him 
a  mile  from  a  certain  point  in  the  back  side  of  the  track  in 
2:23-|,  and  in  twenty  minutes  repeated  him  in  2:21^.  The 
General  reconsidered  his  decision,  and  we  concluded  as  the 
odds  would  be  very  long  against  him  we  would  put  a  little 
money  on  and  try  and  win  a  good  deal.  We  got  the  money 
on  all  right  but,  as  the  General  remarked  after  the  race  was 
over,  we  cut  our  watermelon  before  it  Avas  ripe.  The  race 
came  off,  Calmar  was  beaten  and  we  lost  our  money.  Still 
I  was  not  displeased  or  discouraged  as  he  acted  so  much 
better  in  the  race  than  he  ever  did  before.  I  was  sure  that 
some  daj^  he  would  jDrove  a  winner.  I  concluded  to  start 
in  over  again  and  be  sure  that  the  next  time  I  put  my  money 
on  him  to  have  him  right.  In  this  race  I  found  that  by 
raising  the  weight  well  ux3  on  his  hoof  it  changed  his  gait 
so  that  he  never  touched  his  scalj^ers  and  rarely  touched  his 
shin  boots. 

I  Avorked  him  along  very  carefully  for  tAvo  or  three 
Aveeks,  and  every  time  I  drove  him  he  pleased  me  better. 
I  entered  him  at  the  fall  meeting  at  Fleetwood  Park,  Avhere 
he  Avon  a  race  of  five  heats  against  a  bay  mare  called  Rose- 
wood that  Avas  sired  by  BlackAvood,  and  that  AA^as  driven  in 
this  race  by  James  B.  McMann  of  Flora  Temple  fanie,  and 
which  Avas,  I  believe,  the  last  race  which  that  celebrated 
driA^er  took  j)art  in.  In  this  race  Calmar  again  sold  very 
cheap  in  the  pools.  The  betters  and  the  public,  knoAving 
that  I  had  backed  Calmar  at  Hartford  and  had  lost  my 
money  Avere  not  at  all  frightened  AAdien  they  learned  that 
I  was  doing  the  same  thing  again.  In  the  first  two  heats 
Calmar  Avas  unsteady  and  the  mare  beat  him  easily  in  about 


354  LIFE   Vv'ITH   THE  TKOTTEES. 

2: 30.  He  seemed  very  much  unbalanced  going  down  the  hill. 
Before  the  word  was  given  in  the  third  heat,  I  increased  the 
weight  on  him  by  putting  on  a  six-ounce  toe- weight  instead 
of  a  four-ounce.  This  seemed  to  steady  him,  and  while  my 
friend  McMann  gave  me  a  pretty  hard  race  in  the  next  heat, 
Calmar  beat  the  mare  and  then  j)ut  the  race  to  his  credit. 
I  made  a  fair  winning,  and  Calmar  proved  to  me  that  he 
would  certainly  be  of  benefit  in  tiding  over  the  long  winter 
before  us, 

I  went  from  New  York  to  Cleveland  where  I  had  Calmar 
entered  in  two  races.  When  I  arrived  there  and  told  Mr. 
Baker  about  Calmar's  success  at  Fleetwood,  he  did  not 
enthuse  much  about  him  as  the  time  had  been  slow,  and  he 
thought  his  winning  the  race  was  more  of  a  scratch  than  a 
Ijroof  of  merit.  Mr.  Baker  was  a  man  who  if  you  gave  him 
a  good  deal  of  encouragement  was  apt  to  overbet  every- 
thing. The  night  before  Calmar' s  race  at  Cleveland,  I  told 
him  I  thought  I  had  a  chance  to  win,  and  that  we  had  bet- 
ter have  some  money  on  him.  I  do  not  know  what  kind  of 
an  order  Mr.  Baker  gave  Dempsey  the  pool-seller,  but  it 
must  have  been  unlimited  for  he  played  it  from  the  green 
cloth  to  the  blue  sky,  as  Jack  Batcheldor  says.  The  race 
came  off  and  Calmar  won  in  straight  heats  lowering  his 
record,  and  thereby  winning  the  money  for  us.  In  this  race 
he  had  two  or  three  seconds  to  sjoare  in  each  Leat,  but  I 
kept  him  well  in  hand  and  only  won  at  the  finish,  and  I 
think  the  x)ublic  did  not  realize  we  had  anything  more  than 
I  showed.  Two  days  afterward  we  started  in  another  race 
over  the  same  track  in  a  field  of  horses  where  it  was  known 
we  would  have  to  trot  in  2:23  or  2:24  to  win.     A'srain  I  sue:- 

O  CD 

gested  to  Mr.  Baker  he  had  better  back  his  horse,  and  also 
cautioned  him  that  he  was  in  with  the  best  field  he  had 
ever  struck  and  he  had  a  chance  of  being  beaten.  The  last 
part  of  my  advice  I  hardly  think  Mr.  Baker  took  as  between 
himself  and  his  partner,  Ira  Holmes  of  Chicago,  they  bet 
about  all  the  money  that  was  on  Calmar.  The  race  came 
off  and  Calmar  won  in  three  heats  easily,  trotting  the  last 


LIFE   WITH   THE  TROTTEES.  355 

mile  in  2:23^,  and  the  last  lialf  in  1:09.  This  move  set  tal- 
ent to  thinking,  and  after  that  when  Calinar  started  he  was 
not  overlooked  in  the  betting.  The  following  week  at  Co- 
lumbus he  won  another  race  and  from  there  he  went  to  Cin- 
cinnati where  over  Chester  Park,  he  made  what  I  consider 
the  star  performance  of  his  life 

At  this  time  Chester  Park  was  under  the  management 
of  John  Sullivan,  a  business  man  of  Cincinnati,  and  Capt. 
G.  N.  Stone,  who  afterward  became  famous  as  the  owner 
of  Maud  S.,  and  who  sold  her  to  Mr.  William  H.  Vander- 
bilt,  and  it  is  reported  with  the  money  that  he  got  for  her 
has  amassed  a  fortune.  Chester  Park  was  considered  one 
of  the  best  betting  j)laces  in  the  country.  The  Kentuckians 
always  came  over  there  in  full  force,  and  are  alwaj's  as 
willing  to  bet  their  money  on  their  own  horses  as  they  are 
to  swear  that  they  have  the  best  whisky  in  the  world.  In 
overnight  betting  before  the  race,  Woodford  Chief,  a  hand- 
some s(:allion  driven  by  Gus  Macey,  had  the  call.  I  learned 
in  a  second-handed  way  that  the  horse  had  showed  his 
owner  a  great  trial.  By  this  time  Mr.  Baker,  always  enthu- 
siastic, had  made  up  his  mind  that  no  comparatively  un- 
known horse  could  beat  Calmar,  and  on  the  strength  of  this 
and  not  to  have  the  Kentuckians  out-bet  him,  put  his  money 
on  his  horse  without  stint.  The  Kentuckians  backed  Wood- 
ford Chief  from  start  to  finish.  The  public  were  about 
evenly  divided,  and  the  result  was  long  before  the  race  was 
called  there  was  as  much  money  on  the  contest  as  an 
ordinary  horse  could  have  drawn  if  it  had  been  in  silver 
dollars. 

S.  T.  Harris,  who  has  since  made  himself  famous  by  the 
brilliancy  of  his  newspaper  articles  on  turf  subjects,  was  the 
presiding  judge.  Deception,  a  horse  by  the  way  who  did 
not  fool  the  public  half  as  often  as  his  owner  did,  won  the 
first  heat.  From  that  time  on  the  race  lay  between  Wood- 
ford Chief  and  Calmar,  and  proved  one  of  the  most  deter- 
mined struggles  I  ever  saw  between  two  game  horses.  In 
the  last  heat  at  night,  it  being  nearly  dark,  a  large  field  of 


356  LIFE   WITH   THE  TROTTEES. 

horses  and  a  good  deal  of  tedious  scoring,  Calmar  sometimes 
not  being  a  good  horse  to  get  off,  caused  a  great  deal  of  fric- 
tion. When  they  did  get  the  word,  Calmar  was  at  the  dis- 
tance stand,  he  being  entirely  overlooked  by  the  judges,  as 
they  never  saw  him  until  after  the  word  was  given.  I  set 
sail  with  the  intention  of  doing  nothing  but  saving  my  dis- 
tance if  I  could,  which  I  was  successful  in  doing  and  Wood- 
ford Chief  won  the  heat.  After  the  heat  Calmar' s  backers 
made  a  great  noise  and  disturbance,  accused  the  judges  of 
all  sorts  of  dishonest  things,  and  made  themselves  generally 
disagreeable.  Being  dark  the  judges  postponed  the  race 
until  the  following  day,  and  that  night  about  the  hotel 
nothing  w^as  talked  about  except  the  race,  the  betting  on  it, 
and  censuring  the  judges.  The  only  calm  man  I  saw  about 
the  place  by  the  way,  was  the  owner  of  Woodford  Chief,  to 
whom  I  was  introduced  that  evening  for  the  first  time,  and 
while  we  have  had  some  severe  battles  on  the  race-track 
since  then,  the  Colonel' s  friendship  and  acquaintance  I  prize 
as  one  of  the  pleasant  spots  in  my  life. 

Mr.  Baker  came  to  me  and  wanted  I  should  insist  on  the 
association  changing  the  judges.  I  reasoned  with  him,  told 
him  while  I  had  no  personal  acquaintance  with  any  of  the 
judges,  that  if  I  was  a  judge  of  human  nature  they  were 
honest,  had  simply  made  a  serious  mistake,  a  thing  I  had 
often  done  in  my  own  profession,  and  something  that  any 
man  is  liable  to  do.  The  judges  hearing  Mr.  Baker  s  wishes, 
declined  to  act  in  the  deciding  heat  in  the  morning  and  with- 
drew from  the  stand.  I  insisted  on  their  judging  the  race 
for  two  reasons:  First,  I  did  not  want  to  be  a  party  to 
accusing  a  man  of  something  I  was  sure  he  had  not  done, 
that  was  to  act  in  a  dishonest  manner;  and  second,  they 
were  as  capable  men  as  the  association  could  get.  They 
finally  accepted  the  situation  and  rung  the  bell  for  horses. 
I  had  given  my  horse  a  thorough  warming  up  and  time  to 
cool  out,  and  while  all  this  argument  was  going  on  with  the 
judges,  the  plungers  and  talent  surrounded  Ira  Bride's  pool- 
box  as  thou^i  they  intended  to  tear  it  asunder.     The  Ken- 


LIFE   WITH   THE   TROTTEES.  357 

tuckians  never  for  one  moment  losing  their  faith,  in  Wood- 
ford Chiefs  ability  to  win,  staid  by  him  to  a  man.  Ira 
Holmes,  whatever  he  might  have  lacked  in  size,  made  it  up 
in  game,  and  he  called  the  Kentnckians  and  went  them  one 
better  every  hand  they  showed.  In  scoring  for  the  word 
Woodford  Chief  had  the  pole  and  Calmar  the  extreme  out- 
side, having  finished  last  the  night  before.  When  they  got 
the  word,  they  were  as  near  even  as  possible  for  two  horses 
to  be  and  both  on  a  trot  and  there  commenced  one  of  the 
most  determined  struggles  that  one  could  imagine. 

I  trailed  around  the  turn,  Woodford  Chief  in  the  lead, 
and  in  this  x^osition  we  struck  the  back  stretch,  where  I 
pulled  Calmar  out  to  give  him  a  brush.  Still  Woodford 
kept  the  lead,  and  so  we  rounded  the  upper  turn  I  again 
trailing.  I  made  up  my  mind  by  this  time  that  Calmar 
could  not  out-trot  him  to  take  the  pole  from  him,  so^  con- 
cluded to  lay  on  his  wheel  and  force  the  pace  all  I  could  and 
take  the  chance  of  beating  him  at  the  finish,  knowing  that 
Calmar  was  a  grand  finisher.  Woodford  Chief  seemed  to 
have  the  speed  of  him  and  two  or  three  times  Calmar  was  on 
the  point  of  breaking.  They  turned  into  the  stretch  in  that 
position,  and  for  the  first  two  or  three  lengths  the  Chief 
out-trotted  Calmar;  from  there  Calmar  gradually  gained, 
and  when  they  came  to  the  stand  I  could  not  tell  which  was 
in  the  lead.  The  judges  decided  that  Calmar  had  won  the 
heat  and  race,  and  of  course  our  party  was  corresiDondingly 
happy.  Woodford  Chief  died  the  following  winter.  Had 
he  lived  and  met  with  no  accident  I  am  sure  he  would  have 
been  one  of  the  star  performers  of  his  day,  and  I  consider 
the  loss  of  such  a  horse  greatly  to  be  regretted  by  all  breed- 
ers. Macey,  who  drove  him,  has  developed  from  a  boy  into 
a  man,  and  while  his  interests  are  all  with  horses,  and  he 
has  often  had  good  ones  since,  he  told  me  that  he  had  never 
had  one  that  quite  took  Woodford's  place. 

I  never  think  over  my  career  in  connection  with  horse 
racing  but  this  race  comes  to  my  mind.  The  courage  and 
determination  shown  by  both  these  animals  impressed  me 


358  LIFE   WITH   THE  TEOTTERS, 

SO  that  I  shall  never  forget  it,  I  tliiuk  if  the  public  knew 
and  could  ai)j)reciate  how  a  game  horse  will  struggle,  strive 
and  strain  every  muscle  to  win  under  unfavorable  circum- 
stances, they  would  treat  them  in  a  very  much  more  humane 
manner  than  they  sometimes  do.  It  seems  so  strange  to  me 
that  the  noblest,  truest,  kindest  and  bravest  animals  in  all 
the  Lord' s  creation  should  be  j)laced  in  a  position  where  to 
say  the  least  50  per  cent,  of  them  are  badly  if  not  cruelly 
treated.  I  often  hear  people  say  that  the  Society  for  the 
Prevention  of  Cruelty  to  Animals  has  too  much  power.  I 
think  not.  If  I  were  a  Judge  on  the, bench  and  a  man  was 
proven  guilty  before  me  of  beating  his  wife  or  abusing  his 
horse  in  any  manner,  I  should  certainly  w^ant  to  give  him  a 
life  sentence. 

Writing  about  this  race  recalls  to  my  mind  the  sad  end- 
ing of  Mr.  Bakers  career.  At  the  time  he  owned  Calmar 
he  was  wealthy,  prosperous  and  the  world  Avas  his  friend. 
He  lost  his  fortune,  and  as  is  very  often  the  case,  his  friends 
Avith  it ;  lived  some  years  in  next  to  actual  ]30verty  and  died 
a  violent  death.  Mr.  Baker  may  have  had  his  faults  ;  I  never 
saw  a  man  who  did  not.  I  have  heard  liim  severely  criti- 
cised and  by  those  whom  I  think  should  have  befriended 
instead,  as  I  know  he  had  befriended  them.  I  believe  in  the 
old  adage  of  speaking  weU  of  a  bridge  w  hich  carries  you  safely 
over.  To  me  Mr.  Baker  was  a  true  friend,  a  kind  employer, ; 
helped  me  in  every  way  it  is  possible  for  one  man  to  help 
another,  and  I  always  pitied  him  in  his  trouble  and  misfor- 
tune. 

I  have  often  heard  people  remark  that  they  wondered  at 
blacksmiths  and  horseshoers  being  such  an  ignorant  class 
of  men.  I  know  this  is  the  rex)utation  they  have  among 
some  people.  I  perhaps  have  as  large  a  personal  acquaint- 
ance among  that  class  of  mechanics  as  anyone  in  the  world, 
and  I  wish  to  deny  emphatically  that  such  is  the  case.  I 
know  any  number  of  blacksmiths  who  in  their  own  business 
are  first-class  artizans,  and  with  brains  and  intelligence 
enough  to  fill  almost  any  position  in  life  mth  success.     I 


LIFE   WITH   THE  TROTTERS.  359 

myself  am  indebted  to  this  class  of  men  for  very  many  valu- 
able points  in  the  way  of  shoeing  a  trotter.  If  I  have  a  horse 
with  any  peculiarities  in  the  way  of  shoeing  that  I  can  not 
master,  1  do  as  I  did  with  Calmar  :  find  a  good  blacksmith, 
state  the  case  to  him,  tell  him  what  I  know  and  think  about 
it,  and  nineteen  times  out  of  twenty  I  find  this  method  a 
success.  As  I  have  said  before,  it  is  the  little  things  in 
horse-racing  that  make  or  unmake  the  success  of  the  aifair. 
With  Calmar  it  was  simply  a  matter  of  having  him  properly 
shod  and  his  mouth  rigged  right.  He  was  not  a  hard  horse 
to  drive.  My  foreman,  Walter  Dwyer,  could  have  driven 
him  anywhere.  I  often  had  George  Perrin  work  him  for 
me  and  he  used  to  say  that  instead  of  being  a  bad  horse  to 
drive  he  was  one  of  the  easiest  he  ever  saw.  He  not  only 
got  to  be  a  very  steady  horse  after  he  stopped  hitting  him- 
self, but  also  became  a  first-class  breaker  and  a  good  scorer. 

Lady  De  Jarnette  was  one  of  the  handsomest  and  high- 
est-styled mares  I  ever  saw.  Her  owner,  Mr.  W.  H.  Wilson, 
showed  her  at  many  fairs  and  horse-races,  where  she  invari- 
ably took  the  first  jDremium.  She  went  with  her  head  high 
naturally,  and  I  also  noticed  that  Mr.  Wilson  seemed  to 
have  a  short  over-check  on  her.  I  often  saw  Lady  De  Jar- 
nette go  miles  close  to  2:30,  and  while  she  went  square  and 
level,  she  acted  to  me  as  though  she  clawed  the  air  a  good 
deal,  and  I  was  positive  that  Mr.  Wilson  had  her  checked 
too  short.  One  day  at  Lexington  he  asked  me  to  drive  her 
for  him  to  obtain  a  faster  record.  V^Hien  I  went  to  the 
stable  I  found  the  mare  harnessed  and  her  head  high  in 
air.  I  suggested  to  the  young  man  who  had  her  in  charge 
that  her  head  was  a  little  high,  I  thought,  but  he  answered 
that  it  was  all  right ;  she  would  not  go  with  it  any  other  way. 

I  went  out  and  scored  her  down  a  few  times,  drove  her 
down  to  the  half-mile  pole  at  about  a  2:30  gait  where  she 
commenced  to  hitch  and  hobble,  and  by  the  time  she  had  got 
into  the  head  of  the  stretch  acted  as  if  she  was  choking,  and 
for  fear  she  would  I  pulled  her  up  and  let  her  jog  home  easy 
in  about  2:35.    Mr.  Wilson  was  very  anxious  to  know  what 


360  LIFE   WITH  THE   TROTTEES. 

I  thoiiglit  ailed  her.  I  told  him  I  was  sure  she  was  checked 
in  a  manner  that  caused  her  to  choke,  and  suggested  that  he 
rest  her  twenty  minutes  and  try  again,  which  we  did,  when 
I  gave  her  a  long  check,  made  one  or  two  other  slight 
changes  in  the  harness,  went  out  and  drove  her  a  mile  in 
about  2:24,  and  as  she  had  never  before  beaten  2:29f,  the 
audience  and  Mr.  Wilson  were  very  much  surprised.  Some 
of  them  were  disposed  to  give  me  a  great  deal  of  credit  for 
my  driving.  Anyone  could  have  driven  the  mare  the  same 
mile,  as  she  was  very  steady  and  it  required  no  particular 
skill  to  manage  her.  She  simply  wanted  to  be  properly 
harnessed.  It  is  just  as  easy  to  choke  a  horse  by  checking 
them  too  high  and  forcing  the  tongue  back  into  the  entrance 
of  the  throat,  as  it  would  be  in  any  other  way.  I  have  seen 
one  or  two  horses  die  in  harness  that  I  am  sure  were  choked 
to  death. 

The  bay  gelding  Wilson,  owned  by  Mr.  Z.  E.  Simmons, 
sired  by  George  Wilkes  dam  Miss  Coons  by  Clarke  Chief, 
was  a  horse  that  took  all  his  education  at  the  hands  of  Gus 
Glidden,  who  won  a  good  many  races  with  him  and  gave 
him  a  record  of  2:22.  He  was  different  in  shape,  disposition, 
etc.,  from  any  other  Wilkes  I  ever  saw.  The  first  race  I 
ever  drove  AYilson  was  in  Chicago,  and  as  there  was  a  good 
deal  of  talking  and  betting  about  this  race,  I  will  give  a 
slight  sketch  of  it. 

At  that  time  Mr.  William  Dunn  of  Cincinnati,  a  man 
famous  as  having  bred  and  o^vned  Guy  Wilkes  and  several 
other  valuable  trotters,  owned  the  gray  gelding  Joe  Bunker, 
another  horse  he  bred,  and  had  been  trotting  him  with  a 
good  deal  of  success.  This  year  Bunker  started  in  at  Louis- 
ville in  the  sirring,  making  an  early  campaign  and  winning 
all  his  races,  beating  among  others  the  stallion  Director, 
that  at  that  time  Johnny  Goldsmith  did  not  have  keyed  up 
to  a  winning  point,  he  having  just  brought  him  from  Cali- 
fornia. Bunker  also  defeated  Overman,  a  horse  owned  at 
one  time  by  Orrin  Hickok,  and  sired  by  St.  Elmo,  one  of 
Hickok's  early  performers.  Joe  Bunker  came  to  the  Chicago 


LIFE   WITH  THE  TROTTEES.  361 

summer  meeting'witli  a  great  deal  of  reputation  and  with  as 
niucli  money  to  back  him  as  often  goes  on  one  horse.  Mr. 
Dunn,  his  owner,  always  trots  his  horses  to  win.  This  the 
23ublic  knew,  and  as  Bunker  had  not  lost  a  race  that  season 
they  made  uip  their  minds  he  never  would.  In  the  work  I 
saw  Bunker  get  before  his  race,  I  was  satisfied  he  had  trained 
off,  lacked  sj^eed  and  condition,  and  I  was  sure  under  those 
circumstances  the  more  lie  was  worked  the  worse  it  would 
be  for  him. 

It  Avas  known  that  Bunker  would  be  the  f  ayorite  over  the 
field  in  the  betting,  and  Glidden  suggested  to  me  that  I  take 
his  i^lace  behind  Wilson  in  the  race  on  account  of  the  dif- 
ference in  our  Aveight,  Glidden  being  much  the  heaviest  man, 
and  that  we  should  play  our  money  on  the  field  against  Joe 
Bunker  and  take  the  chances  that  if  Wilson  did  not  beat 
him  some  other  horse  would. 

Before  the  race  came  ofi'  I  found  that  Hickok  thought 
well  of  OA^erman.  In  the  betting  Bunker  AA^as  favorite  $100 
to  $60  over  the  field,  and  thei3ublic  and  Mr,  Dunn's  friends 
put  their  money  on  as  though  they  would  never  get  enough. 
Wliile  the  public  often  gets  the  talent' s  money,  liere  A\'as  a 
race  Avhere  I  think  th^^  talent  had  the  best  of  it,  as  Overman 
AA^on  in  three  straight  heats,  thereby  landing  the  fielder's 
money  for  them. 

The  next  race  that  I  drove  Wilson  AA-as  at  Cleveland 
against  Director,  where  AVilson  made  his  best  record,  and 
although  beaten  he  again  proA^ed  that  he  was  a  fast  race- 
horse. I  have  often  heard  people  say  that  a  trotter  does  not 
need  much  Avork  to  trot  a  race  of  mile  heats,  three  in  five; 
also  that  old  trainers  Avork  their  horses  altogether  too  much. 
Owners  frequently  say:  "  Don't  Avork  my  horse,  he  doesn't 
need  any  AA^ork. ' '  I  have  often  found  that  those  horses  are 
bad  feeders,  with  a  delicate  constitution  and  can  not  stand  a 
preparation  for  a  campaign.  That  kind  of  a  horse  often 
wins  a  race  or  tAvo,  but  there  never  yet  Avas  one  of  them  that 
made  anything  like  a  successful  campaign.  And  whenever 
you  have  a  trotter  that  does  not  need  any  work,  do  not  enter 


362  LIFE   WITH   THE  TEOTTEES. 

liim  for  a  long  campaign,  as  before  yon  get  to  the  end  of  it, 
you  "will  not  only  liavetopay  his  expenses,  but  his  entrance 
money  too. 

In  the  Cleveland  race  I  made  two  mistakes  with  Wilson, 
and  one  of  them  I  consider  a  very  serious  one  and  am  sure 
that  it  cost  him  his  chances  of  beating  a  first-class  horse, 
which  I  have  no  doubt  that  he  would  have  done  had  he 
been  fortunate  enough  to  have  been  managed  diiferenth^ 
At  this  time  the  best  mile  Wilson  had  ever  gone  was  2:20, 
either  in  his  races  or  work,  and  as  I  found  out  afterward, 
he  had  been  given  a  very  short  j)i'eparation  and  a  very 
little  work  of  any  kind.  I  sujDposed  that  he  had  plenty  of 
work,  and  as  he  showed  me  unlimited  speed  before  the  race, 
advised  Mr.  Simmons  to  back  him  and  we  would  try  to  win. 
This  was  the  first  mistake,  inasmuch  as  we  were  wi'ong  as 
to  the  condition  of  the  horse.  A  second  mistake  was  that 
we  underrated  Director.  Johnny  Goldsmith  brought  him 
from  California  in  the  spring  and  trotted  him  a  number  of 
races,  had  won  some  of  them  and  given  the  horse.a  record  of 
about  2:20,  That  rate  of  speed  was  supposed  by  mDst 
people  to  be  his  limit.  The  Cleveland  race  was  a  great 
struggle  of  six  heats  between  these  two,  Director  and 
Wilson,  each  getting  two  heats  apiece  and  making  a 
dead  heat,  and  Director  Avinning  the  deciding  heat. 
Wilson  that  day  made  his  record  of  2:16 J,  which  is 
his  best.  Director  also  made  his  best  record,  2:17,  in  the 
same  race.  The  jpublic  showered  their  money  into  the  pool- 
box  and  were  pleased  to  think  .they  had  seen  a  grand  bat- 
tle, and  Wilson  being  a  game  and  ambitious  horse  and  out 
of  condition  from  being  short  of  work  was  ruined,  as  his 
career  after  that  was  short.  He  never  went  anything  like 
as  good  a  race  again  ;  he  struck  his  hind  leg  in  this  race  and 
was  always  more  or  less  troubled  by  it  and  this  was  his  last 
year  on  the  turf  although  a  young  horse. 

If  Wilson  had  received  a  long  and  careful  preparation, 
such  as  Goldsmith  had  given  Director,  I  am  sure  that  he 
would  have  A\'on  the  race  and  not  only  that  race,  but  a  good 


LIFE    WITH   THE   TROTTEES.  363 

many  more.  Anyone  else  might  have  made  the  same  mis- 
take which  I  did,  whether  they  would  or  not  I  do  not 
know.  I  simply  state  the  facts  in  the  case  and  what  my 
opinion  is  as  a  word  of  caution  to  other  people  who  are  in 
the  same  position,  and  that  is  ;  before  you  give  your  horse 
a  hard  race  be  sure  that  he  is  in  condition  to  take  it.  The 
strongest  proof  that  my  argument  is  right  is  this:  If 
Turner,  Doble,  Hickok,  W.  H.  Crawford,  Jimmy  Golden, 
Jock  Bo  wen  and  many  others  of  that  class  of  men  whom  I 
could  name  start  a  horse  at  the  beginning  of  the  circuit  and 
he  shows  himself  a  good  race-horse,  you  may  expect  to 
have  trouble  with  those  peoj^le  all  along  the  line,  for  instead 
of  the  first  race  doing  the  horses  harm,  if  they  are  in  condi- 
tion to  take  it  it  will  do  them  good  and  they  will  steadily 
improve  to  the  end  of  the  journey,  as  is  proven  in  many 
cases  by  a  horse's  beginning  at  the  first  part  of  the  circuit 
and  trotting  a  race  a  week  and  going  their  last  races  best. 
On  the  other  hand,  you  watch  the  man  who  comes  to  the 
circuit  with  his  horse  that  does  not  need  any  work,  says  he 
hasn'  t  given  him  any,  goes  one  good  race  and  wins,  and  the 
next  w^eek  he  cant  understand  why  he  doesn't  get  better 
than  third  or  fourth  in  the  race.  The  reason  is,  that  from 
lack  of  condition  the  first  race  has  done  the  horse  harm. 

As  plain  a  case  as  ever  I  saw  of  the  kind  came  into  my 
hands  last  year  in  the  bay  gelding  Fred  Folger.  He  be- 
longed to  a  friend  and  old-time  patron  of  mine,  and  a  man 
who  from  long  experience  and  associations  with  Mace, 
Doble  and  Jack  Phillips  ( they  all  having  driven  for  him  at 
different  times ),  has  ideas  about  the  training  and  manage- 
ment of  the  trotter  that  I  think  makes  him  a  very  useful 
man  during  a  campaign.  As  the  financier  of  a  stable  of 
trotting  horses  he  will  come  as  near  having  the  account  on 
the  right  side  as  any  man  I  ever  saw.  Mr.  D.  B.  Herring- 
ton,  the  gentleman  who  trained  Fred  Folger  in  his  early 
career,  deserves  a  great  deal  credit,  as  he  bought  him  at 
auction  when  he  was  an  undeveloped  horse,  and  if  he  had 
shown  any  great  speed  no  one  seems  to  have  known  it,  as 

24 


364  lifp:  with  the  trotters. 

he  was  only  considered  worth  about  $600,  which  was  the 
price  he  brought.  As  the  horse  came  into  my  hands  after- 
ward and  Mr.  Herrington  criticised  my  treatment  of  him 
it  may  not  be  out  of  place  for  me  to  give  my  ojoinion  of  the 
horse  here.  The  lirst  race  in  which  Herrington  started 
Folger  in  was  early  in  the  spring  in  a  climate  which  at  its 
best,  is  cold  and  disagreeable,  and  over  a  track  that  has  been 
notoriously  bad  ever  since  the  day  it  was  built.  And  while 
I  did  not  see  Mr.  Herrington  work  this  horse  nor  drive  him 
in  his  race,  from  evidence  which  I  consider  thoroughly  reli- 
able I  am  satisfied  he  made  the  same  mistake  that  I  did 
with  Wilson,  that  is,  started  his  horse  in  a  race  when  he 
was  short  of  work,  and  while  he  won  it  in  three  straight 
heats,  he  went  three-quarters  of  a  mile  I  am  told  in  one  heat 
at  a  clip  that  would  have  strained  any  horse  in  the 
world  unless  he  was  thoroughly  seasoned  for  an  effort 
of  that  kind.  The  strongest  proof  I  have  that  Folger  was 
out  of  condition  when  he  started  in  this  race  is  his 
race  of  the  following  week,  which  he  also  won,  but  was  so 
badly  out  of  condition  that  he  lost  one  heat  in  2:29^  after 
having  made  a  record  of  2:20|-  the  previous  week.  In  his 
second  race  Folger  was  unsteady,  short  of  speed,  and  that 
he  won  it  was  no  credit  to  a  fast  horse.  The  following  week 
he  won  a  race  at  Hartford  after  another  struggle  of  five 
heats  where  the  best  mile  was  about  2:23^.  In  his  Pough- 
keepsie  race  he  showed  a  record  of  three-quarters  of  a  mile 
in  about  1:40,  and  to  have  a  horse  with  that  wonderful  speed 
get  off  so  that  he  could  not  go  better  than  2:23  or  2:24 
there  must  have  been  some  cause  for  it. 

Wilson,  I  think,  wore  the  lightest  shoes  of  any  Wilkes 
horse  I  ever  saw,  they  weighing  not  over  eight  ounces  in 
front  and  about  five  behind.  I  have  since  often  thought 
that  he  would  have  gone  well  in  tips.  I  believe  that  if  our 
trotting  tracks  were  not  quite  so  hard  there  are  a  great  many 
horses  that  Avoidd  go  better  if  shod  in  that  manner.  I  do 
not  thmk  it  possible  for  horses  to  be  shod  in  tips  and  trot- 
ted successfully  while  our  trotting  tracks  are  so  hard.     I 


LIFE   WITH   THE  TROTTERS.  365 

have  watched  this  matter  at  every  oi^portunity  wliich  pre- 
sented itself  to  me,  have  tried  tix)s  on  a  number  of  horses, 
and  am  satisfied  that  for  a  horse  to  go  well  in  them  the 
track  must  be  especially  prepared.  I  presume  the  gray 
gelding  Jack  is  the  most  celebrated  horse  that  ever  trotted 
a  race  in  tij)s.  Fortunately  for  me  I  was  in  a  position  to 
observe  this  horse  closely  while  he  was  being  shod  in  this 
manner,  as  he  was  in  the  stable  of  Mr.  Doble.  In  fact,  if  I 
remember  rightly,  Budd  talked  the  matter  over  with  me 
before  he  changed  the  shoes. 

Jack  is  an  instance  of  from  what  a  humble  beginning 
a  great  horse  sometimes  springs.  While  he  has  in  his  pedi- 
gree grand  strains  of  blood  that  have  proven  themselves  in 
breeding  and  on  the  turf  first  class,  his  dam  being  by 
Magna  Charta,  the  family  that  gave  us  the  dam  of  Belle  F., 
2:15^,  and  several  others  that  went  in  2:20  or  better,  she 
was  never  considered  of  any  great  value,  having  been  sold 
at  one  time  for  $60.  Coming  into  the  world  from  such  a 
cheap  parent.  Jack  was  not  looked  upon  as  a  coming  world- 
beater,  and  his  early  education,  etc.,  was  not  above  the 
ordinary,  and  while  a  colt  was  offered  for  sale  at  very 
moderate  prices.  In  his  early  training  he  did  not  show  any 
very  remarkable  sjjeed,  but  always  made  a  better  showing 
in  his  races  than  he  did  in  his  work,  which  I  consider  a  first- 
class  symj)tom  of  a  race-horse.  As  a  five-year-old,  he  was 
sold  with  his  mate  to  Mr.  George  Middleton  of  Chicago  for 
a  road-team,  Mr.  Middleton  giving  for  them  $6,000.  I 
hardly  think  he  realized  when  he  bought  the  team  that  the 
following  year  he  would  have  the  pleasure  of  seeing  one  of 
them  win  more  money  than  any  other  trotting  horse  in 
America  would,  which  he  did,  as  Jack  in  capturing  a 
majority  of  the  big  stakes  last  year  put  to  his  credit  that 
feat. 

There  are  some  things  about  Jack  which  remind  me  of 
Rarus.  In  gait  he  is  very  easy  and  smooth,  goes  without  a 
particle  of  friction,  and  when  at  his  top  speed  does  not  seem 
to  be  making  any  effort.   I  have  noticed,  as  with  Rarus,  that 


366  LIFE    WITH   THE   TROTTERS. 

a  great  many  horses  beat  him  to  the  three-quarter  pole,  but 
from  there  to  the  stand  he  steals  along  and  at  the  finish 
seems  to  out-trot  them  with  something  to  spare.  The  first 
race  Mr.  Doble  drove  Jack  in  tips  Avas  at  Rochester,  where 
he  trotted  and  won  the  $10,000  stake,  beating  the  best  field 
of  2:30  horses  that  ever  faced  the  starter.  The  week  of  the 
race  there  had  been  more  or  less  rain,  which  left  the  track 
soft,  and  with  his  shoes  on  Jack  seemed  to  have  hard  work 
to  get  through  the  footing.  The  day  before  the  race  Mr. 
Doble  decided  to  put  tips  on  him  and  try  them,  which 
carries  out  my  argument  of  never  being  afraid  to  make  any 
change  on  the  horse  no  matter  how  close  it  may  be  to  a 
race,  or  what  people  may  say  about  it,  if  in  your  judgment 
it  is  the  proper  thing  to  do.  I  don't  mean  that  you  shall 
change  a  horse' s  shoes  from  an  impulse  or  whim,  but  after 
careful  consideration,  if  you  think  that  is  the  best  thing  to 
do,  make  the  change  by  all  means.  I  have  seen  Mace  change 
a  horse's  shoes  between  heats  of  a  race,  and  with  good  re- 
sults. He  always  said:  "If  you  can't  win  with  one  plan, 
try  another;  never  give  up  trying." 

In  putting  on  the  tips  on  Jack,  Mr.  Doble  followed  the 
rules  as  laid  down  in  Joseph  Cairn  Simpson's  book  entitled 
"Ti]Ds  and  Toe- weights,"  and  in  working  him  to  see  what 
efi'ect  the  change  would  have,  Doble  was  very  much  pleased 
with  him  and  told  me  he  was  sure  he  would  go  the  best  race 
he  had  ever  trotted,  all  of  which  he  did,  proving  that  Mr. 
Doble' s  treatment  of  the  case  was  right.  If  I  had  a  horse 
on  which  it  was  necessary  to  w^ear  toe-weights  in  training, 
I  would  certainly  drive  him  in  tips  the  balance  of  the 
season,  as  I  am  sure  that  in  that  manner  you  would  teach 
him  to  go  with  lighter  weights  than  you  would  by  driving 
him  in  heavy  shoes  all  the  time.  You  will  at  the  same 
time,  if  the  footing  is  not  too  hard,  get  the  i)ressure  on  the 
horse's  frog,  and  if  he  is  inclined  to  contraction  from  bad 
shoeing  or  other  causes  have  a  chance  to  counteract  that 
effect.  The  great  trouble  I  find  with  people  who  have 
theories  about  shoeing  horses  is  that  they  want  to  shoe 


LIFE   WITH   THE  TROTTERS.  367 

every  horse  alike,  which  is  utterly  impossible  to  do  with 
satisfactory  results. 

Wolford's  Z.,  was  another  horse  that  I  had  in  connec- 
tion with  whom  my  blacksmith  was  a  great  deal  of  benefit 
to  me,  as  he  was  a  horse  that  hit  himself  on  his  front  legs  and 
every  other  place,  I  think,  it  was  possible  for  a  horse  to  do 
so.  He  wore  arm  and  knee  boots  and  shin  and  quarter 
boots  when  he  came  into  my  stable,  and  could  not  be  moved 
without  his  hitting  his  boots  very  severely.  Jim  Brayton, 
of  Elkhart,  Ind. ,  shod  him  for  me  after  a  plan  which  I  have 
found  very  satisfactory  in  cases  of  this  Idnd.  In  shoeing  a 
horse  to  prevent  his  hitting  his  knee,  many  blacksmiths  file 
off  the  inside  of  the  foot,  and  by  so  doing  bring  the  foot  to 
a  point,  or  as  it  were,  try  to  make  the  horse  toe  out. 
Others  have  ideas  about  putting  most  of  the  weight  on  one 
side  or  the  other  of  the  shoe.  I  have  tried  all  these  plans 
but  with  poor  result.  Brayton  leveled  the  horse' s  foot  per- 
fectly, shortened  up  the  toe  moderately,  then  made  his  shoe 
tit  the  foot  with  the  weight  evenly  distributed  and  after  it 
was  ready  to  nail  on,  he  heated  the  toe,  placed  the  shoe  in 
his  vice,  and  with  a  rasp  cut  off  the  toe  of  the  shoe  square 
across  so  it  would  look  about  like  the  box-toe  of  an  English- 
man' s  shoe.  After  nailing  it  on  the  foot,  with  his  rasp  he 
cut  of  the  toe  of  the  foot  back  even  with  the  shoe.  After 
Wolford's  Z.,  was  shod  in  this  manner  he  looked  rj^ther 
peculiar,  as  I  had  never  seen  a  horse's  feet  so  treated,  but 
the  result  was  i^erfectly  satisfactory,  as  he  stopped  hitting 
himself  and  was  a  much  faster  and  better  race-horse,  im- 
proved his  record  and  won  some  very  satisfactory  races.  I 
tried  this  same  plan  on  Argyle  the  pacer  to  my  entire  satis- 
faction. 

In  a  trotting  or  pacing  horse  I  object  very  much  to  hav- 
ing their  feet  allowed  to  grow  out  very  long.  I  am  sure 
that  they  are  very  much  more  apt  to  hit  themselves  and 
sooner  or  later  strain  their  tendons.  Argyle  was  a  rather 
peculiar  horse,  his  gait  being  different  from  that  of  any  other 
pacer  I  ever  saw,  it  being  very  much  like  that  of  a  trotter. 


368  LIFIO  WITH   THE   TROTTERS. 

I  believe  Anderson  told  me  lie  had  driven  him  a  mile  in  2:30 
on  a  trot.  I  divide  the  honor  of  having  driven  him  to  his 
best  record  with  Joe  Coates,  he  having  done  likewise  with 
him.  In  a  race  at  Kansas  City  against  Mike  Wilkes  and 
others,  I  took  the  second  heat  with  Argyle  in  2:14|.  Mike 
Wilkes,  driven  by  his  owner  Abe  Rorhbach  of  Stillwater, 
Minn.,  often  called  '' the  Dan  Mace  of  the  Northwest"  from 
his  general  appearance  and  style  of  driving,  won  the  race 
and  also  making  his  best  record  that  day  of  2:15^.  Mike 
Wilkes  is  one  of  the  few  I  have  seen  that  can  both  trot  and 
pace  fast.  In  his  younger  days  he  was  rather  unreliable, 
passed  through  the  hands  of  several  trainers,  and  was  driven 
by  George  Voorhies  on  a  trot  a  mile  in  2:20.  He  w^as  after- 
ward sold  to  Rohrbach  at  a  very  moderate  price,  and  in  the 
hands  of  Spencer  made  quite  a  reputation  as  a  pacer.  But 
his  owner  put  the  finishing  touches  to  his  reputation  when 
he  beat  Argyle  and  he  and  his  friends  from  the  lumber  dis- 
trict won  all  the  money  and  left  my  partner  Frank  Herdic 
and  myself  to  hold  the  sack.  In  my  opinion  there  is  not  as 
much  difference  between  pacers  and  trotters  as  most  people 
imagine.  I  am  sure  that  Johnston  could  be  driven  fast  on 
a  trot  with  but  little  trouble.  When  I  first  got  him,  I  often 
saw  him  step  off  better  than  a  three-minute  gait  at  that  way 
of  going,  and  with  light  shoes  on.  In  fact  would  often  try 
to  score  up  with  me  on  a  trot  in  his  work. 

Colonel  Lewis,  a  gray  gelding  with  a  record  of  2:18  that 
I  brought  from  California  in  1879,  was  a  very  j^eculiarly 
formed  horse  and  had  rather  a  strange  history.  He  was  not 
a  trotting-bred  horse,  and  in  Lis  younger  days  was  harshly 
treated  and  given  no  chance  to  show  or  develop  the  speed 
which  afterward  made  him  quite  famous.  Before  bringing 
him  to  this  country  from  California,  he  showed  me  a  good 
deal  of  speed  with  ability  to  stay  the  route.  On  this  side  of 
the  Rockies  he  did  not  do  as  well.  The  climate  seemed  to 
effect  him  wonderfully,  he  lost  his  speed  and  his  ability  to 
stay  a  mile  out.  This  I  believe  has  been  the  case  with  a 
number  of  other  horses  brought   from  California,  and  the 


LIFE   WITH   THE   TROTTERS.  369 

peculiarity  is  something  that  many  trainers  have  to  contend 
with  in  ship23ing  horses  long  distances.  My  experience  has 
been  that  in  taking  horses  from  here  to  California,  they  in- 
variably do  better.  They  can  go  faster  and  stay  longer  at  a 
high  rate  of  speed  in  that  climate  than  they  can  here.  A 
horse  will  take  more  work  with  a  very  mnch  less  feed  and 
still  keep  plenty  of  flesh.  These  are  matters  of  a  great  deal 
of  importance,  j)articularly  with  a  delicate  horse.  In  bring- 
ing a  horse  from  the  Pacific  coast  to  the  East,  I  think  that 
the  hot  nights  we  experience  here  affect  them  more  than 
any  one  thing. 

In  California,  no  matter  how  warm  the  day,  when  night 
comes  a  horse  is  always  comfortable  with  a  blanket  on,  and 
you  could  not  if  you  tried  reduce  the  flesh  on  him  there  as 
fast  as  it  will  sometimes  come  off  here  in  spite  of  all  you  do 
to  prevent  it.  This  I  think  brings  on  a  weakened  condition 
of  the  animal  and  he  loses  all  chance  of  being  anything  like 
successful.  Doble  brought  Occident  to  this  country  with 
the  reputation  of  being  a  very  fast  horse,  and  he  never  was 
able  to  make  any  use  of  him,  so  badly  did  he  lose  his  form. 
On  returning  to  California,  he  again  regained  it,  appar- 
ently from  no  other  cause  than  the  effects  of  the  climate. 
In  high  countries  we  have  another  condition  of  affairs.  In 
Denver,  my  horses  never  seemed  to  lose  their  flesh  or  their 
appetites,  and  always  felt  well  and  ate  well.  They  would 
have  plenty  of  speed,  but  after  going  a  short  distance  at  a 
high  rate  would  seem  to  swell  up,  act  very  much  dis- 
tressed in  their  wind,  and  some  of  them  would  bleed  at  the 
nose.  Some  horses  never  get  used  to  the  rarified  air  of  a 
mountainous  country,  and  others  it  does  not  seem  to  dis- 
tress so  badly.  When  I  had  Sweetser  in  Denver  he  could 
not  pace  a  mile  in  2:35,  while  Earns  seemed  to  be  affected 
less  by  the  climate  than  any  other  horse  I  ever  saw,  as  he 
made  considering  the  circumstances  and  surroundings,  a 
first-class  performance. 

Doty,  another  native  of  California  that  I  brought  to  this 
country,  was  a  horse  with  a  good  deal  of  speed  but  not  very 


370  LIFE   WITH    THE   TKOTTERS. 

reliable.  The  climate  did  not  seem  to  affect  him  very  much 
as  he  went  about  as  well  here  as  he  could  there.  Harry,  a 
brown  gelding  Avith  a  rf'cord  of  2:24|,  being  a  horse  of  very 
delicate  constitution  and  a  poor  feeder,  was  never  able  to  show 
anything  like  his  California  form.  In  taking  a  trotting  horse 
to  California  after  a  long  and  severe  campaign  here,  the  great- 
est advantage  derived  is,  not  only  the  mild  climate,  which 
I  think  is  a  grand  thing  for  a  horse' s  nervous  organization 
in  the  reduced  condition  which  it  certainly  must  be  after 
his  arduous  work  of  the  season,  but  in  the  fact  that  here 
you  have  a  chance  to  give  him  a  run  at  grass  if  you  wish, 
which  beats  anything  I  ever  saw  in  the  way  of  tonics  to 
build  up  a  horse's  reduced  system.  One  other  benelit  I 
found  was  that  you  could  at  all  times  keep  your  horse  par- 
tially conditioned.  That  is,  you  did  not  have  to  let  up  on 
him  entirelj^  If  a  horse  has  any  weak  places  about  him 
and  you  throw  him  entirely  out  of  training,  when  you  com- 
mence to  train  him  again  you  will  find  that  j^ou  may  have  a 
great  deal  of  trouble  to  get  him  back  to  his  original  form. 
I  have  seen  many  horses  laid  up  in  the  fall  with  bright  pros- 
pects for  the  following  season.  But  from  one  cause  or  an- 
other their  trainers  would  be  unable  to  get  them  back  after 
their  winter's  rest,  and  they  never  performed  as  well  as 
they  were  expected  to.  A  horse  kept  uj^  through  the  win- 
ter, even  in  a  cold  climate,  with  moderate  jogging  and  an 
occasional  brush  at  a  working  gait,  can  be  conditioned  much 
easier  to  himself  in  the  spring  than  one  that  is  let  up  all 
winter,  and  I  think  it  much  the  best  i)lan.  This  was  proven 
to  me  by  the  manner  in  which  Mr.  Simmons  trained  Kansas 
Chief  the  first  winter  he  owned  him. 

The  nervous  organization  of  the  horse  is  something 
which  I  think  is  often  overlooked.  Years  ago,  in  a  conver- 
sation mth  that  celebrated  horseman,  trainer  and  veterina- 
rian, Dr.  Herr,  of  Lexington,  Ky.,  he  advanced  some  ideas 
about  this  matter  that  I  never  heard  from  anyone  else,  and 
gave  me  points  on  the  subject  that  have  been  of  a  great  deal 
of  benefit  to  me.    No  matter  how  sound  your  horse' s  feet  and 


LIFE    WITH    THE   TROTTERS.  371 

legs  are,  how  good  his  wind  is,  how  well  you  train  and  care 
for  him,  you  may  rest  assured  of  one  thing,  and  that  is  :  If 
his  nervous  organization  is  weak  or  impaired  from  any  cause, 
you  will  be  unable  to  get  him  in  the  pink  of  condition  or  to 
get  anything  like  his  best  efforts  in  the  race.  If  such  is  the 
fact,  and  I  am  positive  it  is,  then  the  nervous  organization 
of  the  horse  is  one  of  the  principal  x^oints  to  be  looked  after 
in  training  him.  One  other  point  I  want  to  thank  Dr.  Herr 
for,  and  that  was  the  advice  he  gave  me  in  regard  to  the 
horse' s  stomach.  His  plan  was  that  if  the  horse  was  suffer- 
ing from  any  disorder  of  the  stomach  or  bowels,  instead  of 
continually  overloading  his  stomach  with  bran  mash  and 
feed  of  that  kind,  to  give  him  something  in  the  Avay  of  med- 
icine to  counteract  or  cure  the  disease.  Someone  might  ask 
Would  I  give  a  horse  medicine  while  in  course  of  training  1 
I  certainly  would.  In  these  times  of  intelligent  and  edu- 
cated veterinarians  where  all  diseases  of  the  horse  are  treat^l 
with  perhaps  as  much  intelligence  as  diseases  in  the  human 
race,  there  is  no  more  danger  of  giving  a  horse  medicine 
while  in  training  than  in  taking  medicine  yourself  if  you 
need  it.  In  talking  with  men  who  have  trained  some  of  the 
most  celebrated  athletes  in  this  country,  I  find  that  the 
medical  treatment  of  a  man  in  training  is  one  of  great  im- 
portance, and  as  I  claim  that  horses  are  like  human  beings 
in  more  ways  than  one  the  same  treatment  I  think  should  be 
followed  with  them. 

Governor  Hill,  a  bay  gelding  with  a  record  of  2:18|,  that 
was  owned  by  Mr.  Simon  McMillan  of  New  York  City,  a 
self-made  man,  and  sold  by  him  to  a  party  in  South  Amer- 
ica for  $10,000,  made  his  debut  to  the  public  in  the  hands 
of  Jesse  Yearance  of  New  York  City,  who  I  think  deserves 
a  good  deal  of  credit  for  the  manner  in  which  he  trained  and 
drove  him  his  races.  He  came  to  Yearance' s  stables  in  the 
spring,  not  fairly  broken,  with  some  bad  habits  of  unstead- 
iness, etc.,  in  company,  which  had  to  be  overcome,  and  to 
have  a  man  start  in  with  that  kind  of  a  horse  and  in  one 
season  train  and  drive  and  win  a  majority  of  his  races  and 


372  LIFE   Vv'ITK    THE   TROTTERS. 

give  him  a  record  of  about  2:20,  is  a  performance  I  think 
any  trainer  might  be  i^roud  of.  Hill,  in  breeding  is  a  de- 
scendant of  the  American  Star  family  and  one  of  the  hand- 
somest-gaited  and  speediest  horses  I  ever  saw.  I  think  he 
could  trot  a  hundred  yards  at  a  2:10  gait.  In  disi)osition, 
etc.,  he  was  rather  inclined  to  be  nervous,  a  delicate  feeder, 
and  for  those  causes  more  than  for  his  having  been  a  natural 
coward,  I  lay  the  fact  of  his  not  having  been  a  first-class  race- 
horse, as  he  certainly  had  speed  and  gait  enough  to  make 
him  one.  He  obtained  in  my  hands  a  record  of  2:18|,  forced 
a  horse  to  trot  a  mile  in  2:17^  to  beat  him,  and  the  other 
horse  had  to  have  the  judges  on  his  side  in  order  to  win  at 
that.  Hill  is  a  horse  that  I  think  could,  in  California, 
certainly  have  gone  a  mile  in  2:14. 

One  of  the  best  evidences  that  ever  I  saw  that  waiting 
and  taking  jjlenty  of  time  to  condition  a  horse  is  the  surest 
way  to  get  money  with  him  was  in  the  mare  Little  Gypsy. 
I  had  seen  her  passed  around  from  one  trainer  to  another 
and  handled  and  worked  in  rather  a  slipshod  fashion,  She 
finally  came  into  the  stable  of  Mr.  AYilliam  H.  Crawford, 
who  had  never,  on  account  of  his  poor  health,  considered 
himself  a  star  driver,  but  who  as  a  trainer  and  financier  in 
the  business,  had  made  himself  a  reputation  equal  to  that  of 
Jay  Gould  in  railroad  circles.  The  manner  in  which  Craw- 
ford trained  Gyj^sy  must  have  been  a  surprise  to  her,  as  I 
noticed  he  had  her  well  harnessed,  well  booted,  had  a  good 
boy  to  care  for  her,  and  in  training  her  gave  her  his  entire 
personal  attention.  Through  the  Michigan  circuit  in  the 
spring  she  did  not  cut  much  of  a  figure,  but  in  a  race  at 
Dexter  Park,  the  commencement  of  tlie  circuit  in  which  I 
drove  Planter,  I  found  that  Mr.  Crawford  had  a  pretty  fair 
mare.  In  talking  the  matter  over  with  him  after  the  race, 
he  acknowledged  to  me  that  such  was  the  case,  and  further 
said  that  when  he  got  her  to  what  he  considered  a  feather 
edge  and  was  prepared  to  back  her  he  would  like  very  much 
to  have  me  take  his  place  behind  her,  as  he  lacked  confi- 
dence in  himself  in  that  kind  of  an  engagement.  The  follow- 


LIFK    Wirn    THE    TROTTERS  373 

ing  week  at  Cleveland  Gypsy  was  entered  in  a  race  where 
if  the  betting  fraternity  and  the  public  had  ever  heard  of 
her  they  must  have  entirely  forgotten  the  fact,  as  she  sold 
for  $30  in  $600  pools  the  evening  before  the  race,  and  in  fact 
kept  at  the  same  odds  until  the  race  started.  Some  peoi)le 
took  ])iivt  in  this  race  who  are  celebrated  not  only  in  connec- 
tion with  the  turf,  but  also  in  other  walks  of  life.  Foster 
Dewey,  who  perhaps  was  the  closest  friend  that  William  H. 
Vanderbilt  ever  had,  at  that  time  owned  Richard,  had  him 
entered  in  the  same  race,  and  came  on  from  N"ew  York  with 
a  number  of  his  friends  to  see  him  trot,  his  x:)arty  including 
such  well-known  men  as  Sheridan  Shook,  Ed  Gilmore  of 
theatrical  fame,  Charlie  Read,  the  ow^ier  of  Midnight,  and 
a  host  of  others  w4io  always  helped  to  make  it  lively  around 
the  pool-boxes  whenever  they  appeared  on  the  scene. 

Mr.  Crawford,  Terry  Barden,  Charlie  Harvey  and  Al 
Carlile  formed  a  trust  and  at  the  odds  i^laced  money  enough 
on  Gypsy  to  win  $12,000.  So  well  were  all  the  details  ar- 
ranged and  the  money  put  on,  that  the  unsuspecting  j)ublic 
never  thought  they  were  being  led  to  the  slaughter.  In 
fact,  I  myself  never  mistrusted  there  was  going  to  be  a 
"killing,"  Mr.  Crawford  not  having  said  any  further  to  me 
after  our  conversation  in  Chicago,  and  for  that  reason  I 
supposed  that  he  did  not  expect  to  back  his  mare.  He 
drove  her  the  first  heat  himself,  which  he  won  in  2:23|.  The 
next  heat  Mace  beat  him  with  an  unreliable  horse  called 
Banquo,  owned  at  that  time  by  a  Boston  gentleman.  The 
finish  was  very  close  between  Mace  and  Crawford,  and  I 
thought  at  the  time  Gypsy  ought  to  have  won  it.  After 
this  heat  Crawford  asked  me  to  take  bis  place,  which  I  did, 
and  Gypsy  won  the  race  in  the  next  two  heats,  but  not  until 
after  she  had  had  a  fight  from  start  to  finish  in  the  fourth 
mile  with  a  bay  gelding  of  the  name  of  Jack,  and  he  forced 
her  out  to  her,  at  that  time,  best  record  of  2:22.  Here  is 
where  it  is  reported  of  Crawford  that  he  made  his  famous 
remark.  The  finish  of  this  heat  was  so  ck)se  that  many 
people  did  not  know  which  horse  had  won.     The  judges 


374  LIFE    WITTI    THE   TKOTTERS. 

were  some  time  figuring  the  position  of  the  third  and  fourth 
horses.  Crawford  became  impatient  and  asked  me  what  I 
thought  about  it.  I  told  him  his  mare  had  won  the  heat 
■  sure.  He  wondered  why  the  Judges  did  not  hang  out  their 
decision.  I  tokl  liim  they  would  in  a  minute,  whereupon  he 
remarked  that  would  be  too  late  for  him,  as  he  would  be 
dead  in  a  minute,  meaning  that  the  strain  would  be  too 
great,  he  could  not  wait  that  long.  I  think  he  was  mis- 
taken. 

No  matter  what  the  decision  might  have  been  I  am  sure 
from  what  I  saw  of  the  man  at  other  times,  it  would  have 
taken  more  than  that  to  kill  him.  Once  afterward  when  he 
was  very  ill  and  I  stood  at  his  bedside,  he  told  Lis  lohysician 
that  he  wanted  to  know  just  what  chance  there  was  of  his 
living  or  dying.  The  physician  answered  that  he  had  just 
an  even  chance  for  his  life.  Crawford  replied  to  him  that 
that  was  as  good  a  thing  as  he  had  ever  had  in  this 
world,  and  was  willing  to  take  an  even  chance  and  try  and 
live,  which  convinced  me  that  it  would  take  more  than  an 
adverse  decision  from  the  judges'  stand  to  make  him  surren- 
der. In  api^earance,  disposition,  etc.,  the  four  men  who  won 
the  money  on  this  race,  besides  being  connected  in  business, 
were  great  social  friends.  The  public,  I  think,  are  greatly 
mistaken  about  the  character  and  habits  of  men  connected 
with  the  turf.  As  in  other  M'allvs  of  life,  there  are  a  great 
many  different  kinds  of  peoi)le  interested  in  trotters,  some 
for  jDleasure,  and  some  as  a  means  of  livelihood.  Terry Barden 
was  a  man  of  very  delicate  health  and  mildness  of  manner, 
and  whether  he  was  buying  the  first  choice  in  the  pool -box, 
or  speaking  to  a  lady,  had  the  same  polite  manners  and  low 
tone  of  voice,  always  jDleasant  to  meet  with.  He  often  lost 
his  money,  but  never  a  friend.  He  is  one  of  the  few  men  who 
lived  and  died  and  left  behind  him  no  Avord  of  censure. 
CraAvford,  a  man  of  more  nervous  temperament,  is  the  de- 
scendant of  a  well-bred  family,  received  a  good  business 
education,  served  his  time  in  the  war,  and  jDroved  by  his 
conduct  that  whatever  else  was  in  his  character  fear  was  no 


LIFE   WITH   THE  TROTTEKS.  375 

part  of  it.  After  the  war  he  engaged  in  some  business  ven- 
tures, bought  a  trotter  for  the  love  of  the  horse,  and  after- 
ward bloomed  out  as  professional  trainer  and  driver,  and  in 
that  connection  has  owned  and  driven  some  of  the  most  cele- 
brated horses  in  this  country.  Charlie  Harvey  is  an  English- 
man by  birth,  an  American  by  adoption,  the  proprietor  of  a 
hotel  by  occupation,  and  an  owner  of  trotters  for  j)leasure. 
He  is  always  ready  to  trot  his  horses  for  the  money,  will 
back  his  opinion  at  all  times,  and  as  a  neighbor  and  friend 
and  a  Jolly  companion  rates  first  class.  Al  Carlile  is  always 
considered  Ira  Bride' s  running  mate,  a  position  which  he  is 
amply  able  to  fill,  not  only  from  his  size,  as  he  and  Ira  are 
considered  the  heavy  weights  of  the  turf,  but  from  other 
traits  of  their  characters.  They  have  both  often  lost  their 
money  on  a  horse-race,  but  when  it  comes  to  ordering  and 
eating  a.  good  dinner,  their  speed  and  staying  qualities  are 
acknowledged  by  everyone  who  knows  them.  As  a  mer- 
chant, Carlile  has  joroved  himself  a  man  of  rare  ability, 
very  temperate  in  habits,  never  having  smoked  a  cigar  or 
taken  a  drink  of  liquor  under  any  circumstances,  always 
ready  to  back  his  opinion  with  his  money  on  anything  from 
the  Presidential  election  to  a  hundred-yard  foot-race.  As  a 
friend  he  is  true  blue,  as  many  a  man  on  the  turf  to-day  has 
reason  to  know  from  the  fact  that  at  some  time  in  his  career 
Carlile  has  bridged  him  over  a  financial  difficulty. 

In  this  respect  I  think  si)orting  men  are  much  more 
liberal  and  charitable  than  business  men.  On  the  turf,  no 
matter  how  poor  a  man  may  get,  how  bad  his  luck  may  be, 
or  what  misfortune  may  overtake  him  by  loss  of  health  or 
otherwise,  you  may  rest  assured  of  one  thing,  he  will  find 
plenty  of  j)eople  in  his  own  line  willing  to  helji  him  in  his 
time  of  distress,  and  if  I  were  ever  to  have  the  plate  passed 
for  my  benefit,  with  all  due  resjject  for  the  churches,  of 
which  I  am  a  great  admirer,  I  would  sooner  have  it  sent 
around  on  the  race-track  than  in  the  wealthiest  church  in 
the  world.  As  a  rule,  I  think  the  conduct  of  men  con- 
nected with  the  turf  will  compare  favorably  with  that  of 


376  LIFE   WITH  TITE   TROTTERS. 

tile  same  number  of  peoiDle  in  other  walks  in  life.  For 
instance,  the  pool-sellers  and  book-makers  liave  and  hold  at 
different  times  a  great  deal  of  money  which  belongs  to  other 
people  and  that,  too,  without  giving  the  slightest  security 
for  it.  We  often  hear  of  bank  presidents,  treasurers  and 
cashiers  and  other  men  holding  positions  of  trust  going 
off  to  Canada  with  other  people's  money,  but  who  has  ever 
heard  of  a  pool-seller  doing  so? 

I  once  had  a  horse-trade  with  a  banker  who  told  me  he 
did  not  have  much  confidence  in  horsemen,  but  when  I  told 
him  there  were  more  bank  presidents  than  horse  jockeys  in 
Canada,  he  changed  the  topic.  There  are  other  men  who 
love  a  trotting  horse  for  the  pleasure  it  gives  them.  While 
they  do  not  from  inclination  or  need  trot  their  horses  in 
jmblic,  they  derive  a  great  deal  of  pleasure  from  them,  and 
add  very  much  to  the  interest  of  the  sport.  Such  men  as 
Mr.  Robert  Bonner  and  William  and  John  Rockefeller  have 
made  it  possible  by  their  example  for  a  man  although  he  be 
a  minister  of  the  gospel  to  own  and  drive  a  trotter  without 
causing  any  unpleasant  remarks.  I  once  trained  a  horse  for 
a  Catholic  priest  named  Father  Barry,  who  lived  on  Staten 
Island,  and  if  charity  toward  the  faults  and  weaknesses  of 
others  as  well  as  their  bodily  ailments,  a  life  of  unceasing 
toil  in  behalf  of  needy  creatures,  and  a  love  for  all  that  was 
good  and  true,  for  humanity' s  sake  and  not  for  what  anyone 
might  have  said  of  him,  are  the  characteristics  of  a  Christian, 
my  patron.  Father  Bai'ry,  was  surely  one. 


CHAPTER    XV. 

The  trotting  interest  one  that  extends  throughout  the  land  and  is  growing  every 
year — Famous  road  riders  of  New  York  City  and  elsewhere — Commodore 
Vanderbilt's  present  to  his  spiritual  adviser — Robert  Bonner  and  his  sons, 
the  Rockefellers,  Mr.  Frank  Work,  and  others — Men  in  other  cities  who 
love  the  trotter  for  the  pleasure  and  health  they  derive  from  driving — Some 
hints  about  the  purchase  and  care  of  a  road  horse — Decide  just  what  you 
want  the  animal  for,  and  then  use  him  for  that  purpose  only — Don't  expect 
your  gardener  to  also  be  capable  of  taking  good  care  of  your  road  horses — A 
few  practical  suggestions  that  will  commend  themselves  to  all  owners  of 
horses. 

I  have  often  heard  it  said  that  the  interests  in  thorough- 
bred horses  in  America  would  gradually  overshadow  trotting 
interests,  but  I  hardly  think  so,  as  in  the  lirst  place  a  thor- 
oughbred horse  is  only  useful  for  two  purposes — for  breeding 
and  racing.  As  a  road  horse,  a  thorougli»bred  has  never  been 
considered  a  success.  I  can  buy  a  better  road  horse  for  $250, 
trotting  bred,  than  the  best  race -horse  in  America  would 
make.  The  love  of  a  trotter  is  bom  with  the  American.  It 
is  not  an  acquired  taste  in  any  way;  as  soon  as  a  boy  is  able 
to  walk  he  wants  a  horse,  and  for  awhile  he  has  to  content 
himself  with  a  hobby  horse.  When  he  grows  to  manhood, 
if  he  is  in  j)osition  to  do  so,  he  gets  himself  a  trotter,  either 
to  drive  on  the  road,  or  for  turf  purposes. 

The  best  reason  why  the  people  never  lose  interest  in  trot- 
ters is  not  the  fact  of  their  being  used  on  the  turf,  as  the 
percentage  of  men  who  own  the  trotting  horse  for  titirf  pur- 
poses is  very  small  in  comparison  with  a  large  number  of 
people  who  use  him  for  pleasure.  In  most  every  city  and 
village  of  this  country  there  are  people  who  own  trotting 
horses  for  private  use;  horses  that  are  able  to  go  all  the  way 

(377) 


378  LIFE   WITH  THE  TROTTERS. 

from  three  minutes  to  2:08|,  and  a  first-class  road  horse 
to-day  will  command  a  greater  price  for  that  use  than  he 
will  for  track  purposes.  Another  reason  why  the  trotter  is 
bound  to  succeed  is  that  foreign  countries  are  commencing  to 
buy  from  our  market,  and  as  there  is  no  other  country  in  the 
world  that  can  at  present  compete  with  America  it  looks  as 
though  in  the  matter  of  trotting  horses  we  should  certainly 
have  the  call  for  along  time  to  come.  One  can  hardly  realize 
the  amount  of  money  that  has  been  paid  for  trotting  horses 
that  are  used  by  gentlemen  on  the  road.  In  a  great  many 
cities  and  towns  there  are  either  tracks  or  roadways  arranged 
expressly  for  this  kind  of  travel.  In  New  York  City  there 
are  whole  families  from  the  father  to  the  youngest  son  each 
of  whom  has  his  own  private  turnout  of  trotters  and  light 
wagons,  and  drives  them  with  as  much  regularity  as  he 
looks  after  his  business. 

In  Commodore  Vanderbilt's  day  that  gentleman  drove 
his  trotters  with  as  much  regularity  as  it  was  possible  for  a 
man  to  look  after  any  department  of  his  business  life.  He 
had  good  ones,  and  occasionally  sent  them  out  to  take  a 
whirl  on  the  turf,  but  as  a  rule  confined  himself  entirely  to 
road  driving.  He  thought  a  great  deal  of  trotters  as  a 
medium  of  amusement,  so  much  so,  that  he  gave  his  minis- 
ter, the  Rev.  Dr.  Corry,  a  man  whom  he  was  very  fond 
of,  a  X)air,  and  I  have  often  seen  the  Commodore  and  the 
preacher  having  a  brush  together  down  the  road,  and  they 
appeared  to  enjoy  it  wonderfully.  His  sons  had  the  same 
love  for  the  trotter,  and  William  H.  was  considered  a  good 
judge  of  a  trotting  horse,  and  a  first-class  road  driver. 
When  he  owned  Maud  S.,  he  was  not  averse  to  having  her 
appear  in  public,  which  she  often  did,  and  he  must  have 
enjoyed  it,  as  I  have  known  him  to  take  very  long  trips  to 
see  her  perform.  The  Bonner  family,  father  and  sons,  have 
been  regular  road  riders  as  long  as  I  can  remember,  and 
while  the  boys  are  not  quite  as  well  known  to  the  public  as 
their  father,  they  love  a  horse  just  as  well,  are  good  judges 
of  them,  and  I  never  saw  one  of  them  that  could  not  drive  a 


LIFE   AVITII   THE   TROTTERS.  879 

trotter  like  a  Hiram  Woodruff.  Years  ago,  I  was  out  for  a 
drive  myself  one  day,  and  was  overtaken  by  what aj)peared 
to  me  to  be  a  boy  of  about  fifteen  or  sixteen  years  of  age, 
with  a  small,  smooth  bay  horse.  I  had  a  j)retty  fair  animal 
myself,  a  regular  2:30  horse,  and  when  the  youngster  chal- 
lenged me  for  a  trot,  expected  to  have  a  walkover.  I  was 
very  much  disappointed  however,  not  only  in  the  speed  that 
the  bay  horse  showed,  but  also  in  the  masterly  manner  in 
which  the  youngster  handled  him.  On  inquiring  who  the 
young  man  was,  I  was  not  so  much  surprised  at  his  ability 
when  I  was  told  that  he  was  the  youngest  son  of  Eobert 
Bonner,  and  that  the  horse  he  drove  was  a  colt  that  had 
for  its  dam  the  celebrated  mare  Flora  Temple,  the  first  trot- 
ter to  beat  2:20.  I  afterward  spent  a  day  at  Mr.  Bonner's 
farm,  and  while  the  style  and  sjjeed  of  the  numerous  horses 
he  showed  me  pleased  me  very  much,  the  greatest  enjoyment 
I  had  was  in  seeing  his  boj^s  drive  them.  They  drove  them 
against  the  watch,  against  each  other,  and  at  last  they 
invited  me  to  get  behind  a  horse  and  take  a  shy  at  them, 
which  I  did,  and  the  masterly  manner  in  which  they  handled 
the  animals  under  all  circumstances  gave  me  as  much 
pleasure  as  it  would  a  musician  to  hear  an  artist  play  a 
violin  or  X3iiino. 

The  Rockefellers,  of  whom  there  are  three,  John,  Will- 
iam and  Frank,  each  own  first-class  private  establishments. 
They  buy  any  horse  that  strikes  their  fancy  and  are  always 
willing  to  pay  the  top  prices.  John  Rockefeller  has  in  his 
stable  a  paii'  of  liorses,  that  before  they  came  into  his  pos- 
session made  records  better  than  2:20  on  the  turf,  and  he 
has  others  that  have  shown  that  rate  of  speed  in  private. 
He  keeps  a  first-class  trainer  in  Alex.  McCrea,  who  looks 
after  all  the  details  of  the  establishment,  and  the  horses  are 
given  as  much  attention  with  the  idea  of  developing  their 
speed  and  to  keep  them  in  the  pink  of  condition  as  a  man 
would  devote  to  a  stable  that  he  intended  for  turf  pur- 
poses. 

William  Rockefeller  owns  a  pair  of  horses  that  I  drove 

25 


380  LIFE   WITH   THE   TEOTTEES. 

together  in  public  a  mile  in  about  2:18;  one  of  them  has  a 
record  of  2:18|  in  a  public  race,  and  he  paid  for  her  about 
$12,000.  He  has  any  number  of  horses  that  have  cost  him 
up  in  the  thousands,  and  on  his  private  farm  he  has  a  fine 
track.  Mr.  Geo.  Saunders  has  the  training  and  manage- 
ment of  Mr.  Rockefeller's  stables,  which  is  x^roof  enough 
that  the  horses  will  always  have  the  best  of  attention  and 
care.  The  stables,  horses,  and  outfit  of  these  gentlemen 
must  have  cost  $100,000. 

Mr.  Frank  Work,  I  think,  is  perhaps  one  of  the  oldest 
road  riders  in  New  York.  He  was  for  years  the  bosom 
friend  of  Commodore  Vanderbilt,  and  has  one  of  the  hand- 
somest stables  I  ever  saw.  Among  his  horses  are  a  x)air,  Dick 
Swiveller  and  Edward,  that  not  only  made  for  themselves 
an  enviable  reputation  on  the  turf  but  a  world-wide  fame, 
having,  while  owned  by  Mr.  Work,  trotted  a  mile  in  a 
double  harness  to  a  gentleman's  wagonin2:16|.  Mr.  Work 
has  numerous  other  horses  with  records  between  2:30  and 
2:20,  and  although  he  is  past  the  meridian  of  life,  his  inter- 
est in  trotters  is  just  as  strong  as  in  his  younger  days. 

Ca.pt.  Jake  Vanderbilt,  the  late  Commodore's  brother, 
is  a  genuine  horseman,  and  I  am  sure  if  he  had  not  been 
born  with  large  business  interests,  he  would  have  been  a 
professional  horseman  with  a  love  for  the  trotter,  and  he 
can,  to  this  day,  drive  one  right  to  the  mark.  Capt.  John 
Dawson,  or  as  .his  friends  all  call  him,  "Jack"  Dawson, 
trots  his  horses  in  public,  and  backs  them  when  he  thinks 
they  can  win;  keeps  a  stable  of  trotters  to  drive  on  the 
road,  and  if  you  should  ever  have  a  brush  Avith  him,  I  am 
sure  at  the  finish  you  will  not  have  it  to  say  that  you  out- 
drove him. 

Col.  Lawrence  Kip  in  his  stable  of  fine  horses  has  as 
much  pleasure  as  it  is  x>ossible  for  a  man  to  obtain,  and  at 
the  horse-shows  be  generally  manages  to  take  away  his 
share  of  the  premiums,  for  his  extreme  taste  in  the  beauty 
and  finish  of  all  his  rigs. 

Mr.  J.  B.  Houston,  president  of  the  Union  Pacific  Mail 


LIFE  WITH   THE   TKOTTEKS.  381 

Line,  not  only  drives  horses  on  the  road,  but  has  also  had  a 
stable  on  the  turf  for  a  number  of  3  ears.  Mr.  Houston,  Jr., 
is  perhaps  the  youngest  road  rider  in  New  York.  From  the 
manner  in  which  I  have  seen  him  handle  his  trotters  I 
believe  I  would  be  willing  to  match  him  to  drive  against  any 
one  of  his  age  in  the  country.  While  his  father  has  much 
the  advantage  of  him  in  years,  I  doubt  very  much  whether 
the  young  man  asks  any  odds  of  his  sire  when  it  comes  to 
driving  a  trotter. 

Major  Dickinson,  one  of  the  old  school,  and  one  of  the  few 
men  that  are  left  now  who  are  willing  to  match  their  horses 
for  five  or  ten  thousand  dollars  a  side,  keeps  a  very  hand- 
some establishment  for  road  driving  and  also  another  for 
turf  purposes.  He  enjoys  driving  his  horses  and  also  see- 
ing them  trot,  which  is  attested  by  the  fact  that  when  they 
perform  the  Major  with  his  pleasant  ways  is  always  on 
hand. 

Nathan  Straus  also  keeps  two  establishments,  and  in 
Majolica,  record  of  2:15,  he  has  a  horse  that  he  has  had  a  great 
deal  of  pleasure  with.  Majolica  has  quite  a  history,  hav- 
ing been  bred  by  Mr.  Eobert  Bonner  and  sold  for  a  very 
small  i^rice.  It  has  always  seemed  strange  to  me  that  as  a 
rule  the  men  who  breed  horses  do  not  derive  the  full  bene- 
fit f]'om  them.  JSTaming  over  the  list  of  our  celebrated 
horses  commencing  with  Maud  S.,  who  was  sold  by  ber 
breeder  for  about  $500,  Jay-Eye- See,  whom  Colonel  West 
disposed  of  for  a  small  consideration,  St.  Julien,  Goldsmith 
Maid,  and  so  on  down  through  a  long  list  I  find  that  most 
of  them  have  been  bred  for  trotters  and  by  men  who  under- 
stood their  business  and  then  sold  for  comparatively  small 
sums  of  money.  Rarus  was  the  only  horse  of  the  kind 
from  whom  his  breeder  realized  the  full  benefit. 

In  Boston  the  two  representative  gentleman  horsemen 
are  John  Shepard  and  Mr.  Geo.  Hall.  In  appearance  Mr. 
Shepard  is  a  tall,  gentlemanly  looking  man,  one  of 
the  most  prominent  dry-goods  merchants  in  the  Eastern 
country,  and  no  Yankee  ever  loved  a  horse  better.     He  has 


382  LIFE   WITH  THE  TKOTTEES. 

trotted  his  horses  in  public,  and  liis  road  establishment  has 
been  for  a  number  of  years  one  of  the  most  prominent  feat- 
ures of  Boston.  Mr.  George  Hall  may  surely  be  called  a 
self-made  man,  as  from  a  clerk  he  has,  by  liis  own  deter- 
mination and  close  attention  to  business,  made  himself  pro- 
prietor of  one  of  the  handsomest  hotels  in  this  country. 
His  attention  to  business  and  his  methodical  ways  are  sel- 
dom equaled.  In  appearance  he  is  a  handsome  man  of 
medium  size  with  the  appearance  of  an  Englishman.  His 
ability  as  a  diiver  would  certainly  make  him  a  success  in 
the  professional  line.  The  speeding  ground  of  Boston  Las 
a  reputation  nearly  as  great  as  the  Bunker  Hill  Monument. 

In  Providence,  Messrs.  Barnabee  &  Winship,  the  lead- 
ing clothing-house  proiDrietors  of  that  city,  are  perhaps  the 
largest  owners  of  road  horses.  They  have  also  owned  many 
that  have  made  their  mark  on  the  turf,  among  them  H.  B. 
Winship,  that  has  made  the  best  record,  2:06,  with  a  run- 
ning mate,  and  several  others  of  greater  or  less  fame. 

In  Chicago,  we  have  Mr.  H.  V.  Bemis,  proprietor  of  the 
Richelieu  Hotel,  who  has  owned  driving  horses  and  trotted 
them  for  a  long  while,  and  has  in  his  time  had  a  fortune 
invested  in  that  way.  Mr.  Chas.  Schwartz  has  everything 
from  a  four-in-hand  to  a  road  horse  with  a  record  of  2:20  in 
the  shape  of  a  gentleman's  turnout.  John  Dupee,  Jr., 
while  he  has  not  taken  as  active  a  part  on  the  turf  as  his 
partner  Mr.  Schwartz,  has  always  been  as  near  the  front 
with  road  trotters  as  it  was  possible  for  him  to  get. 

In  Rochester,  N.  Y.,  Mr.  George  Archer,  one  of  the 
leading  merchants,  and  j)re:;ident  of  the  trotting  associa- 
tion, has  proven  his  taste  for  the  trotter  by  the  numbers 
that  he  has  owned  and  driven.  Mr.  Jas.  Whitney  of  the 
same  city  is  never  without  one  or  more  first-class  road  per- 
formers and  occasionally  takes  a  fly  on  the  turf. 

In  Buffalo,  W.  I.  Mills,  a  man  who  trotted  horses  in 
Flora  Temx3le"  s  time,  who  at  that  time  owned  Belle  of  Sara- 
toga, and  has  ever  since  been  connected  with  the  turf,  has 
a  small  but  select  stable  of   first-class  performers.     Mr. 


LIFE   WITH    THE   TROTTERS.  383 

H.  C.  Jewett  is  before  the  iDnblic  more  prominently  as  a 
breeder,  but  takes  as  much  j)leasure  and  interest  with  his 
road  horses  as  he  does  in  his  stock  farm.  Mr.  C.  J.  Hamlin 
must  have  had  the  love  of  the  trotter  born  with  him,  for  as 
long  ago  as  I  can  remember  he  owned  something  in  the  way 
of  a  speedy  horse.  Of  late  years  he  has  had  the  i^leasure  of 
driving  a  pair  of  horses  bred  by  himself,  a  mile  better  than 
2:20,  a  feat  that  I  believe  has  never  been  j^erformed  by  any 
other  man. 

In  Cleveland,  Mr.  William  Edwards,  the  president  of  the 
trotting  association  and  a  wholesale  grocery  merchant, 
always  feels  lost  if  he  does  not  have  one  or  tAvo  road  horses. 
Mr.  W.  J.  Gordon  often  takes  a  spin  behind  Clingstone, 
and  with  his  mate,  William  H.,  they  make  a  very  iDleasant 
team  and  rejDresent  in  cash  $35,000,  which  was  the  price  he 
paid  for  them.  Frank  Rockefeller,  the  youngest  member 
of  the  Rockefeller  family,  is  a  breeder  who  is  not  averse  to 
trotting  his  horses  on  the  turf  and  driving  them  on. the 
road,  all  of  which  he  does  with  as  much  enthusiam  as  a 
professional. 

In  Philadelphia,  the  Bower  Bros,  are  perhaps  the  repre- 
sentative men  of  that  city  in  the  number  and  quality  of 
their  road  establishment.  They  both  occasionally  take  a 
flyer  at  the  turf,  and  in  his  palmy  days  Uncle  Billy  Doble 
was  their  leading  driver,  he  always  having  the  mount  be- 
hind their  trotters.  The  ' '  Bower  Boys, ' '  as  they  are  called, 
enjoy  racing  thoroughly,  and  for  their  vacation  from  busi- 
ness in  summer,  take  a  trip  down  tlie  grand  circuit.  Colo- 
nel Snowden,  a  j)olitician,  and  vice-iDresident  of  the  National 
Trotting  Association,  manager  of  one  of  the  largest  insur- 
ance companies  in  the  world,  and  with  many  other  irons  in 
the  fire,  finds  time  and  has  the  interest  to  always  own  some 
first-class  driving  animals. 

In  Washington  City,  the  Naylor  Bros,  and  F.  M.  Draney 
are  the  representative  horsemen  both  on  the  track  and  road, 
as  they  are  men  who  take  an  interest  in  everything  pertain- 
ing to  trotting  horses. 


384  LIFE  Tv-ITiI  TID']  TKOTTEES. 

Mr.  E.  H.  Brodliead  of  Milwaukee,  a  banker,  has  always 
taken  such  a  lively  interest  in  trotting  horses  that  he  might 
almost  be  rated  with  the  i)rofessionals,  and  when  he  drives  on 
the  road  he  seems  as  contented  in  that  class  as  he  does  Avith 
the  amateurs.  C.  C.  A'^Hiite,  manager  of  the  Plankinton 
House,  is  Just  as  good  a  judge  of  a  road  horse  as  he  is  man- 
ager of  a  hotel.  W.  R.  Armstrong  is  another  one  of  Mil- 
waukee's citizens  who  invests  his  money  in  road  horses  with 
a  view  to  i^leasure  solely. 

In  St.  Paul,  Mr.  E.G.  Long  perhaps  leads  the  way  in  tlie 
quality  of  his  road  horses,  he  having  in  his  stable  such  tried 
turf  performers  as  Fanny  Witherspoon,  with  a  public  rec- 
ord of  2:1GJ  at  a  mile,  and  4:43  at  two  miles,  which  is  the 
best  in  the  world  for  that  distance.  Governor  Men-iam  leads 
off  with  Belle  F.,  that  has  a  record  of  2:15J,  and  besides  her 
he  has  Adelaide,  2:18,  and  any  number  of  others  that  have 
proved  themselves  first  class  in  genuine  battles. 

In  Louis vUle,  the  well-known  Steve  Maxwell  and  George 
Linderberger  appear  to  carry  the  banner  with  the  number 
and  quality  of  their  fast  roadsters.  These  are  only  a  very 
small  part  of  the  great  number  of  people  who  interest  them- 
selves in  owning  trotters  and  if  it  could  be  greater  compu- 
ted, the  amount  of  money  that  is  yearly  invested  in  horses 
for  this  purpose  it  would,  I  think,  appear  wonderful,  even 
to  people  who  are  used  to  large  transactions. 

Mr.  JN'athaniel  Wheeler  of  Bridgeport,  Conn.,  who  has 
proven  by  his  works  that  he  admires  everything  that  is ' 
good  and  true,  is  a  great  lover  of  the  trotter,  and  not  only 
keeps  and  drives  them  himself  but  has  also  brought  his 
children  up  to  believe  it  is  perfectly  proper  for  a  gentleman 
to  own  and  drive  a  trotter.  He  gave  his  boys  a  2:40  trotter 
to  drive  at  a  time  in  their  lives  when  most  boys  were  amus- 
ing themselves  with  a  top.  Tliat  their  education  in  this 
matter  has  not  done  them  any  harm  is  proven  by  their  after 
life,  as  they  have  developed  into  first-class  business  men 
and  citizens,  that  any  country  might  be  proud  of.  Mr. 
Charles  Clark  of  Pittsburgh,  Pa.,  a  pillar  in  the  cliu^cb, 


LIFE   WITH   THE   TKOTTERS.  385 

not  only  owns  trotters,  but  as  an  amateur  driver  of  tlie 
same  ranks  among  the  first  in  the  land. 

Mr.  Albert  Post  of  Chicago  had  the  love  of  the  trotter 
born  in  him,  as  he  is  a  native  of  Orange  County,  the  birth- 
place of  Dexter  and  George  Wilkes,  two  horses  whose 
names  will  mark  a  mile-stone  in  the  history  of  trotting  no 
matter  how  long  the  world  bsts.  It  was  on  Mr.  Post's 
father's  farm,  that  under  the  tuition  of  Mr.  William  Sar^-ent, 
St.  Julien  learned  his  alphabet  in  the  school  of  trotting. 
Mr.  Post  uses  his  stable  of  trotters  not  only  for  road  pur- 
poses, but  is  willing  at  all  times  to  have  them  appear  in 
public  in  actual  contests,  and  thereby  get  a  correct  estimate 
of  their  merits. 

I  often  hear  gentlemen  complain  that  it  is  impossible  for 
them  to  get  a  first-class  road  horse,  and  that  they  have  all 
sorts  of  misfortunes  with  them  after  they  do  secure  one.  I 
think  this  is  easil}^  accounted  for  from  the  following  reasons: 
In  the  first  x^lace  it  requires  a  combination  of  qualities  rarely 
met  with  in  any  animal  to  make  a  i^erfect  road  horse.  I  find 
it  much  easier  to  select  and  buy  a  first-class  race-liorse  than 
a  road  horse  which  would  please  the  ordinary  road  driver. 
In  getting  a  road  horse  a  gentleman  should  know  just 
wdiat  he  wants  to  use  him  for.  It  will  be  impossible  to  find 
one  that  will  be  j)erfect  in  three  or  four  different  posi- 
tions, or  in  other  words  you  can  not  expect  to  use  your  horse 
in  the  ordinary  family  carriage  five  days  in  a  week  and  then 
have  him  able  to  go  at  a  high  rate  of  sj)eed  the  otlier  tw^o. 
The  simi^le  fact  of  a  horse  having  a  record  of  2:20,  got  under 
the  management  of  an  expert,  drawing  not  over  two  hun- 
dred pounds,  having  the  benefits  of  all  the  mechanical  in- 
ventions known  to  man  in  the  way  of  boots,  toe- weights, 
etc.,  w^ill  not  make  him  a  first-class  roadster.  In  i^icking 
out  a  road  horse,  always  be  sure  and  buy  one  that  is  per- 
fectly^ sound.  Don't  buy  an  unsound  horse  any  sooner 
than  you  would  a  second-hand  wagon.  Test  the  horse 
thoi'oughly  as  to  kindness  and  ability  to  draw^  weight  at  a 
high  rate  of  speed,  and  if  you  wish  to  buy  him  for  use  in 


386  LIFE  V>'ITH  THE  TROTTERS. 

double  harness  have  hi-n  thoroughly  tried  in  that  manner. 
I  find  that  many  horses  that  are  pleasant  to  manage  in  sin- 
gle harness  do  not  always  act  as  well  when  hitched  double. 

In  buying  a  horse  for  i^resent  use,  do  not  make  the  mis- 
take of  getting  one  that  has  been  a  fast  horse,  or  one  whose 
owner  says  will  in  some  future  day  be  able  to  beat  Maud  S., 
as  in  that  case  you  are  simply  paying  for  his  opinion  and 
not  for  the  fact.  The  safest  way  is,  I  find,  after  thoroughly 
trying  the  horse  on  the  road  as  to  his  weight-pulling  ability, 
kindness,  etc.,  to  have  the  seller  take  him  to  some  good 
mile  track,  let  him  drive  liim  as  fast  as  he  can  and  you  bold 
your  watch  on  him.  Then  pay  for  just  what  you  have  seen. 
If  you  can  not  buy  the  horse  on  those  terms  you  will  be 
better  off  without  him,  and  will  have  the  privilege  of  look- 
ing farther.  I  have  had  some  strange  experiences  in  buying 
horses,  and  this  calls  to  mind  an  instance  where  an  owner 
of  a  trotter  made  a  mistake  of  nearly  a  minute  in  the  speed 
of  his  horse,  and  when  I  proved  it  to  him,  he  didn't  seem 
to  think  that  it  made  any  great  difference. 

I  was  one  day  approached  by  a  gentleman  who  asked  me 
if  I  would  like  to  buy  what  was  probably  one  of  the  greatest 
trotters  in  the  land.  I  told  him  I  would.  He  went  on  to 
say  that  he  had  a  horse  at  his  farm  that  was  sound  and  all 
right  in  every  way,  went  without  any  boots  or  weights,  and 
tliut  he  would  guarantee  to  show  me  with  this  horse  a  mile 
in  2:20  by  the  watch.  I  had  heard  so  many  ghost  stories 
about  horses  that  I  generally  divide  the  time  stated  by  two, 
but  in  this  case  the  man's  apxiearance  and  manners  made 
such  a  good  impression  on  me  that  I  arranged  to  go  to  his 
country  home,  time  the  world-beater,  and  should  he  go  in 
2:20  and  fill  all  the  conditions,  I  was  to  give  him  for  the 
horse  $7,500  in  money.  I  had  on  my  list  of  acquaintances 
a  very  wealthy  gentleman  who  was  very  anxious  to  own  a 
first-class  trotter.  When  I  told  him  the  arrangement  I  had 
made  he  was  as  much  pleased  as  I  was  with  my  first  drum, 
and  together  we  took  a  tedious  railroad  trij)  to  the  home  of 
this  going-to-be  conqueror  of   Maud  S.,    and   on  walking 


LIFE   WITH  THE  TKOTTEKS.  387 

around  the  track  where  he  was  to  be  shown,  I  told  my  friend 
that  one  of  two  things  was  the  case,  and  either  the  track 
was  not  a  mile,  or  the  man  was  crazy,  as  Rarus  in  his 
13almy  dsijs  could  not  have  trotted  a  mile  over  as  i)Oor  a 
track  as  that  in  2:20.  The  gentleman  brought  his  horse  to 
tlie  track,  warmed  him  up  with  as  much  flourish  as  though 
the  best  record  in  the  world  was  in  danger,  and  came  up 
and  got  the  word.  We  started  our  watches  on  him  and  he 
finished  the  mile  in  2:89f .  As  I  do  not  want  to  jar  the 
feelings  of  my  readers  I  will  not  record  in  this  book  the 
sentiments  I  expressed  at  that  time. 

I  remember  a  man  who  in  my  younger  days  brought  a 
horse  to  New  York  to  sell  on  a  contract  to  show  2:45  with 
him,  and  fer  every  second  he  beat  it,  he  was  to  receive  one 
hundred  dollars  over  a  stated  price,  and  for  every  second  he 
fell  short  of  that  time  he  was  to  take  off  a  hundred  dollars 
from  the  same  price.  \Ylien  he  showed  the  horse  he  went 
a  mile  in  three  minutes,  which,  if  the  man  had  been  com- 
j)elled  to  live  up  to  the  letter  of  the  contract,  would  have 
cost  him  five  hundred  dollars  in  money. 

After  a  gentleman  has  bought  a  horse  the  next  thing  is 
the  management  of  him.  When  you  buy  a  piano  and  pay 
four  or  five  hundred  dollars  for  it  you  carefully  house  it, 
no  one  is  allowed  to  play  on  it  unless  they  are  known  to  be 
exiDerts;  you  have  it  carefully  examined  at  stated  intervals 
to  see  if  it  is  in  tune,  etc. ,  and  under  such  careful  manage- 
ment it  lasts  a  long  while.  Horses,  as  a  rule,  are  treated 
very  differently.  A  gentleman  of  wealth  buys  himself  a 
horse  for  which  he  pays  a  large  price.  Having  perhaps 
never  having  had  the  time  or  inclination,  and  never  having 
made  any  study  of  the  horse  family,  he  places  him  in  charge 
of  «ome  of  the  many  men  servants  around  the  house,  most 
of  whom  are  not  employed  on  account  of  their  ability  as 
first-class  grooms,  but  for  their  usefulness  in  taking  care  of 
the  lawn  and  other  duties  about  a  gentleman' s  place.  With 
this  combination  of  driver  and  groom  one  would  hardly  ex- 
pect any  wonderful  results  in  the  way  of  sx:)eed.     Taking  it 


388  LIFE   WITH  THE  TROTTERS. 

for  granted  that  you  have  bought  a  horse  that  in  disposition, 
formation,  breed,  natural  gait,  etc.,  is  calculated  for  a  road 
horse,  one  that  does  not  need  boots  or  toe-weights  and  has 
no  peculiarities  about  shoeing,  with  a  little  good  horse 
sense  brought  to  bear,  you  will  be  surprised  how  long  a 
horse  will  last. 

In  proof  of  this,  look  at  the  length  of  time  that  Dexter 
lived  and  was  useful.  Mr.  Work"  s  team,  Swiveller  and  Ed- 
ward, the  last  time  I  saw  them,  looked  like  colts.  They 
have  not  only  had  a  long  career  on  the  road,  but  before  he 
bought  them  were  used  as  turf  horses  for  some  time.  No 
t}T^)e  of  horses  that  I  know  of  live  any  longer  or  are  able  to 
do  any  more  work  of  their  kind,  if  properly  cared  for,  than 
trotters.  In  the  management  of  your  horse  irf  the  stable, 
the  first  thing  absolutely  necessary  is  a  man  of  intelligence. 
I  have  read  a  great  many  books  on  the  ventilation  of  stables, 
etc. ,  but  seldom  see  anything  said  in  regard  to  the  man  who 
is  going  to  manage  the  ventilation.  Don't  expect  to  find  a 
first-class  groom  that  will  be  capable  of  growing  roses  in 
your  greenhouse,  as  with  their  limited  chance  for  education 
they  will  not  have  time  to  learn  both  trades  weU.  I  think 
that  the  same  attention  should  be  paid  the  ventilation  and 
drainage  of  your  stable  that  you  would  pay  to  your  own 
house.  I  think  artificial  heat  in  a  stable  unnatural  and 
detrimental  to  horses.  What  tliey  want  is  plenty  of  fresh 
air,  to  be  comfortably  clothed,  and  to  have  a  good  bed  at  all 
times.  No  matter  how  well  you  feed  or  care  for  a  man,  if 
you  put  him  in  a  bad  bed  at  night  he  will  be  very  apt  to  find 
fault  in  the  morning,  and  I  think  it  is  the  same  with  a 
horse. 

In  the  matter  of  feeding  the  liorse  the  attendant  has  to 
be  governed  entirely  by  the  disposition  of  the  animal  and 
the  amount  of  work  he  is  expected  to  do.  These  things 
come  to  a  man  by  natural  observation  and  tact.  When  it 
comes  to  driving,  if  you  want  to  realize  the  greatest  pleasure 
there  is  in  the  ownership  of  a  liorse  learn  to  drive  him  well. 
I  think  there  is  just  as  much  pleasure  in  the  knowledge  of 


LIFE   WITH  THE  TROTTEES.  389 

being  able  to  drive  a  trotter  well  as  there  is  in  the  sensation 
of  his  drawing  you  over  the  ground  at  a  high  rate  of  speed. 
Be  just  as  careful  in  driving  him  down  the  road  for  fun  as  you 
would  if  you  were  driving  him  on  a  race- track  before  a  large 
audience  for  money,  and  remember  at  all  times  that  to  drive 
a  horse  at  a  high  rate  of  sx)eed  with  the  weight  of  an  ordinary 
driver  and  wagon,  you  have  the  animal  under  a  greater  strain 
than  you  would  driving  him  at  his  top  speed  to  a  lighter  ve- 
hicle. And  if  you  i3ersist  in  this  sort  of  thing  you  will  be 
very  apt  to  spoil  your  horse' s  gait,  get  him  to  hitching  and 
hobbling,  and  in  other  ways  make  him  unsteady.  My  idea 
is  to  protect  your  horse  in  every  way  that  you  can.  Don' t 
overload  him  ;  don' t  speed  him  where  the  footing  is  bad  and 
deep.  When  you  do  sx^eed  him  be  sure  that  everything  is  fa- 
vorable for  the  horse  and  that  he  is  in  proper  condition  to 
stand  that  sort  of  exercise.  Most  men  who  have  valuable 
horses  for  road  purposes  and  are  successful  with  them  kee^)  a 
first-class  man  who  trains  and  looks  after  them  with  as  much 
care  and  attention  as  I  would  a  stable  of  race-horses.  If  a 
man  should  hire  a  hod-carrier  to  run  the  engine  in  his 
pleasure  yacht,  and  in  that  way  get  blown  up,  people  would 
say:  "  What  could  you  expect  ?  "  Then  what  can  you  ex- 
pect if  you  hire  a  man  who  is  no  more  fit  to  take  care  of 
your  horses  than  a  hod-carrier  is  to  run  the  engine,  if  jouv 
horses  get  lame,  take  sick  and  die  i 

Not  only  in  the  Eastern  country,  but  all  through  the 
Western  country  gentlemen  are  greatly  interested  in  trotters. 
In  Cheyenne,  Phil  Dater,  who  used  to  be  one  of  the  pillars 
of  trotting  about  New  York,  has  been  located  for  a  number 
of  years  and  took  with  him  his  love  for  the  trotter  as  is 
shown  by  the  large  number  which  he  owns,  many  of  Avhich 
he  has  bred.  In  Denver,  Mr.  William  Bush,  proprietor  of 
the  Windsor  Hotel,  keeps  a  fine  stable  of  road  horses,  as 
well  bred  and  perfect  in  every  way  as  money  co uld  buy.  His 
brother  Jim,  proprietor  of  one  of  the  leading  stables,  keeps  his 
horses  both  for  turf  and  road  purj^oses.  Is  willing  to  take 
a  flyer  at  the  turf  at  any  time,  and  is  always  ready  to  j)ro- 


390  lifp:  with  the  tkotters. 

tect  his  money  at  the  pool-box  in  a  way  which  has  kept  his 
bank  account  in  good  order. 

Driving  trotters  on  the  snow  has  come  to  be  a  great 
amusement  with  gentlemen,  and  a  horse  that  can  go  well  in 
that  manner  will  command  a  larger  price  as  a  gentleman's 
road  horse  than  one  that  can  not.  I  find  a  great  difference 
in  horses  about  going  in  the  snow.  Some  very  fast  horses 
from  their  gait,  etc.,  seem  entirely  helpless  when  hitched  to 
a  sleigh,  wdiiie  others  take  to  it  very  kindly.  One  of  the 
best  snow  horses  I  ever  saw,  perhaps,  was  Ethan  Allen.  He 
w^as  my  ideal  of  a  gentleman's  road  horse.  I  think  I  have 
seen  Mr.  Simmons  drive  him  and  his  son  Honest  Allen  on 
the  road  to  a  sleigh  faster  than  ever  I  saw  a  team  go  that 
way  hitched.  For  a  perfect  sleigh  horse  you  want  one  that 
does  not  pull,  that  is  square  gaited  and  will  go  without 
boots.  If  he  is  obliged  to  wear  boots  in  the  snow  and  they 
become  wet  they  will  be  heavy,  and  I  also  find  that  the 
water  seeping  through  the  boots  often  poisons  the  horse's 
legs  and  in  that  w^ay  you  are  liable  to  have  a  great  deal  of 
trouble.  Boots  often  chafe  a  horse  in  the  snow^  from  being 
wet,  etc. ,  while  they  would  not  at  any  other  time.  Sj)eak- 
ing  of  a  horse  chafing,  I  find  that  a  great  many  are 
troubled  that  way  even  in  summer.  If  a  horse  pulls  in  har- 
ness, he  is  almost  sure  to  chafe  under  the  breeching,  and 
there  are  some  that  chafe  under  the  breast  collar.  If  I  have 
a  horse  that  chafes  from  the  breast  collar,  I  al\A^ays  use  an 
old-fashioned  collar  and  hames  on  him.  He  will  trot  just 
as  well,  although  it  may  not  be  quite  as  handy  or  look  as 
well.  The  best  remedy  I  ever  tried  for  chafing  is  a  solution 
of  white-oak  bark.  Any  druggist  can  make  it  for  you. 
This  recipe  was  given  to  me  by  an  army  officer,  who  told  me 
that  he  learned  it  from  a  groom  in  the  army  and  he  consid- 
ered it  one  of  the  most  valuable  remedies  he  ever  met. 

In  selecting  the  double  team  for  a  gentleman' s  use,  if 
you  expect  to  drive  them  at  a  high  rate  of  speed  with  ease 
and  comfort,  there  is  a  great  deal  to  be  thought  of.  First 
and  foremost,  you  must  have  two  horses  the  same  disposi- 


LIFE  WITH   THE  TEOTTERS.  391 

tion  and  temperament.    Then  you  want  them  gaited  as  near 
alike  as  possible,  and  you  will  find  that  no  horse  that  has 
to  wear  weights  and  a  great  number  of  boots  can  by  any 
possibility  be  a  first-class  road  horse.     What  you  want  is  a 
horse  gaited  so  that  he  will  balance  himself.     If  either  one 
of  theni  x^nlls  at  all,  they  will  be  both  disagreeable  and  use- 
less as  a  team.     I  find  that  most  horses  when  being  used  in 
double  harness  need  to  be  shod  a  little  heavier  than  the 
same  horse  would  in  single  harness.  This  arises  I  think  from 
the  fact  that  you  do  not  have  the  same  chance  to  balance 
him  and  steady  him  with  the  bit  that  you  would  in  single 
harness.     I  think  that  as  a  rule  road  horses  are  checked 
entirely  too  high.     To  place  a  horse's  head  in  that  position 
and  then  ask  him  to  pull  500  pounds  in  weight  at  a  high 
rate  of  speed  is  wrong.      The  horse  is  not  only  uncomfort- 
able but  at  a  great  disadvantage.      I  notice  that  in  drawing- 
weight  most  horses  hold  their  heads  in  a  medium  position. 
I  can  not  remember  a  horse  now  that  carried  his  head  ex- 
tremely high  and  had  to  be  checked  in  that  manner,  that  I 
ever  considered  a  first-class  road  horse.     I  think  that  Aveight 
has  something  to  do  with  a  road  horse.     Hoi3eful  was  not  a 
racy- looking  horse.     He  is  what  we  would  call  a  "chunk," 
had  a  short,  thick  neck,  strong  shoulders,  plenty  of  body, 
short,  strong  back,  very  stout  legs,  and  here  too '  he  was 
short.     By  the  record  he  was  the  best  weight  puller  we  ever 
had,  he  having  made  the  best  record  to  wagon.     I  don't 
wish  to  say  by  this  that  I  think  there  was  no  other  horse 
could  have  done  the  same  thing  or  gone  better,  for  I  am  sure 
that  there  was.     Dexter  was  a  wonderful  horse  for  his  size  to 
draw  weight,  which  is  not  only  proven  by  his  races  to  wagon, 
but  also  by  his  being  driven  to  a  road  w^agon  in  2:21|-  by  his 
owner,  which  is  a  performance  I  think  never  equaled  by  any 
other  horse. 

In  slioeing  a  horse  to  drive  in  the  snow,  you  will  find 
that  at  all  times  he  wants  to  be  shod  sharp.  If  the  calks 
get  dull  and  he  slips  a  little,  he  soon  becomes  discouraged 
and  will  not  try.     It  is  just  as  hard  for  a  horse  to  go  in  dull 


392  LIFE  WITH  THE  TROTTEES. 

shoes  as  it  is  for  a  boy  to  skate  with  dull  skates.  A  horse 
should  always  be  shod  with  leather  iu  winter,  or  some  other 
arrangement  made  to  keep  him  from  balling  iu  the  snow.  I 
have  tried  two  j)lans  with  satisfaction.  First,  the  leather 
pads,  and  if  you  use  patent  leather  you  can  oil  it  a  little 
and  the  snow  can  not  possibly  stick  to  it  in  the  least.  My 
other  plan  is,  buy  some  sheets  of  guttapercha  at  the  rubber 
factory,  take  a  small  quantity  of  it  and  put  it  in  boiling 
water  and  in  that  way  soften  it,  and  while  in  that  condition 
press  it  into  the  bottom  of  the  horse's  foot  the  same  as  you 
would  putty.  It  will  harden  very  quickly  and  can  be  left 
in  as  long  as  you  like  without  injury.  One  thing  to  rec- 
ommend this  plan  is  that  it  can  be  done  without  removing 
his  shoes.  In  driving  your  horse  on  the  snow,  always  remem- 
ber to  have  him  in  good  condition  before  you  commence  to 
work  him,  as  one  hard  drive  when  out  of  condition  in  the 
deep  footing  is  liable  to  sore  his  muscles  and  body  so  that 
you  will  not  have  any  pleasure  with  him  the  balance  of  the 
winter. 

I  think  most  of  the  people  who  interest  themselves  in 
the  thoroughbred  horse  do  so  not  so  much  from  a  matter  of 
sentiment  and  love  for  the  horse,  as  they  do  for  gain.  I 
notice  that  when  it  comes  to  a  matter  of  pleasure  a  great 
many  of  them  keep  a  trotter  or  two.  McLaughlin,  the  crack 
jockey,  and  Garrison,  both  keei3  private  road  establishments, 
and  while  they  are  both  small  men  they  drive  extremely 
well,  thus  proving  to  me  that  it  is  not  a  matter  of  strength 
in  driving  a  trotter,  but  of  talent.  Some  of  the  most  noted 
men  now  connected  with  the  running  turf  have  at  some 
time  in  their  lives  been  connected  Avith  the  trotting  turf. 
For  instance,  theDwyer  brothers  long  before  they  interested 
themselves  in  runners  had  trotters  on  the  turf.  John 
Campbell  made  himself  famous  with  pacers  and  trotters 
before  running  reached  anything  like  the  i^roportions  it  has 
reached  now.  Ed.  Corrigan,  who  has  taken  a  very  active 
part  in  running  the  last  few  years,  used  to  train  and  own 
trotters,  and  was  one  of  the  first  men  I  ever  saw  drive  Rob- 


LIFE   WITH   THE  TROTTERS.  393 

ert  McGregor  in  a  race,  and  some  of  the  qualities  that  made 
him  successful  on  the  running  track  were  just  as  useful  to 
him  with  the  trotter.  Jack  Batchelor  trained  and  drove  his 
own  trotters  for  a  number  of  years  with  success,  and  when 
he  went  into  the  running-horse  business,  he  was  able  to 
train  them  and  get  his  share  of  the  money.  Col.  William 
McGuigan,  who  at  one  time  made  his  mark  on  the  trotting 
turf,  a  longer  one  i^erhaps  than  any  other  man  ever  did,  has 
connected  himself  with  the  runners  and  is  just  as  success- 
ful. L.  C.  Chase,  who  in  his  lifetime  owned  some  of  the 
best  trotters  in  this  country  and  managed  them  success- 
fully, proved  himself  just  as  handy  with  the  runners  as  he 
ever  had  been  with  the  trotters,  and  before  the  talent  about 
the  pool-box  realized  it,  he  had  given  them  some  blows  from 
which  they  have  never  recovered. 

I  think  a  man  that  is  a  first-class  rider  of  thoroughbred 
race-horses  can  certainly  be  taught  to  drive  a  trotter  well. 
I  have  watched  William  Hay  ward  ride  some  of  his  long- 
distance races  and  I  have  always  felt  sure  that  if  he  had 
taken  an  interest  in  it,  could  have  made  himself  a  first-class 
driver.  Speaking  of  light  men  driving  a  trotter  well,  we 
have  a  number  of  feather  weights  in  the  business  who  get 
along  all  right.  In  Bennie  Mace's  lifetime,  Avliile  he  was 
overshadowed  by  Dan' s  greatness  to  a  certain  extent  with 
the  public,  I  always  gave  him  credit  for  being  an  artist.  [ 
think  he  never  weighed  over  115  or  120  pounds,  and  was 
rather  a  delicate  man  in  health,  etc.,  yet  I  have  seen  him 
drive  all  kinds  of  horses,  and  it  seemed  to  me  extremely 
well.  I  saw  him  ride  Panic  for  Mr.  De  Noyelles  once,  when 
he  could  not  have  weighed  over  a  hundred  pounds.  Ben- 
nie drove  American  Girl  some  of  the  best  races  she  ever 
trotted,  and  he  must  have  impressed  her  owner  Mr,  Lovell 
as  being  a  good  driver,  as  he  had  been  connected  with  the 
turf  long  enough  to  know  that  talent  is  a  very  necessary 
thing  to  have  in  that  position.  Dan  and  Bennie  were  great 
friends.  Dan  looked  upon  him  more  I  think  as  a  son  than 
a  brother,  and  Bennie  always  deferred  everything  to  him 


394  LIFE   WITH  THE   TROTTERS, 

the  same  as  he  woukl  have  to  his  father.  Bennie  lost  his 
health  and  Dan  in  making  his  will  left  the  bulk  of  his 
property  to  be  held  in  trust  for  Bennie's  use.  But  as  Ben- 
nie only  outlived  Dan  about  three  months  he  had  no  use 
for  it. 

Dan  had  another  brother  that  the  public  never  heard 
much  about,  Joe  Mace,  he  was  by  long  odds  the  handsom- 
est one  of  the  family  ;  very  much  the  best  educated  one, 
and  had  other  advantages  over  Dan  and  Bennie  that  would 
have  helped  to  make  him  a  success  in  the  world.  But  he 
did  not  have  the  determination  and  will  to  apply  himself 
to  business  that  they  did,  and  while  he  was  very  fond  of 
horses  and  had  some  very  good  ideas  about  them,  he  seemed 
more  willing  to  sit  down  and  talk  and  read  about  them  than 
he  was  to  try  to  make  a  living  with  them.  He  always  left 
that  part  of  his  affairs  entirely  to  Dan.  I  have  seen  him 
drive  a  few  races,  but  if  it  came  to  anything  like  a  close 
finish  he  would  send  for  "the  old  man,"  as  he  and  Bennie 
always  called  Dan.  I  think  that  oftentimes  one  very 
bright  man  in  his  business  in  a  family  is  liable  to  over- 
shadow the  other  members  in  such  a  manner  that  they  do 
not  appear  to  the  best  advantage.  I  am  sure  this  was  the 
case  in  the  Mace  family  and  also  in  Hiram  Woodruff's  fam- 
ily. He  had  two  brothers,  William  and  Isaac,  who  in  their 
prime  were  horsemen  of  ability  way  above  the  average.  In 
those  days  trotting  horses  were  very  scarce  in  numbers  and 
those  that  were  anything  like  good  ones  could  be 
counted  on  the  fingers  of  your  hands.  And  Hiram  with 
his  great  reputation  of  ability,  coupled  with  his  honesty 
which  always  gives  any  man  an  advantage  in  his  business, 
as  a  rule  had  the  pick  of  the  world,  Isaac  and  William 
drove  all  kinds  of  races  well,  and  both  were  experts  in  the 
saddle  and  could  ride  a  horse  any  distance.  Isaac  is  still  in 
the  land  of  the  living  and  it  has  never  yet  been  proven  that 
any  of  the  new  generation  of  drivers  and  trainers  have  out- 
managed  or  out-driven  him  for  the  money.  Budd  Doble  is 
about  the  only  exanq^le  I  ever  saw  of  a  man  following  in 


LIFE   WITH   THE  TROTTEES.  395 

the  footsteps  and  same  profession  as  his  father  did.  who 
did  not  labor  under  the  disadvantage  I  speak  of,  and  I 
think  he  has  his  father  to  thank  for  that.     Boys  are  very 
apt  to  defer  everything  to  their  fathers  if  they  are  in  the 
same  business  which  I  think  is  very  wrong.     If  you  expect 
to  succeed  in  any  business  in  life  you  must  make  uj)  your 
mind  to  one  thing,  and  that  is  to  do  some  thinking  for  your- 
self.    Don't  expect  your  father  or  your  brother  to  do  your 
thinking,  as  if  they  do  and  you  lose  them  in  any  way  and 
you  have  never  taught  yourself  to  think,  you  will  be  very 
helpless.     Uncle  Billy  Doble  told  all  his  boys  if  they  were 
going  to  be  horse-trainers  tlie}^  must  work  out  their  own 
salvation,  as  his  experience  had  taught  him  that  was  the 
only  way  they  could  hope  to  be  successful.     My  exx^er,  3nce 
has  taught  me  that  people  who  have  made  a  great  success 
of  anything  have  done  their  own  thinMng.     This  matter 
was  greatly  impressed  on  my  mind  by  a  short  conversation 
I  once  had  T\ith  General  Grant.     In  our  talk  the  subject 
turned  on  the  criticism  of  the  public,  and  I  remarked  that 
I  thought  the  i^ublic  had  often  criticised  me  rather  severely. 
General  Grant  asked  me  if  I  had  ever  read   the  paj)ers 
through  the  war  times  and  if  so,  what  I  thought  of  some  of 
the  criticisms  which  had  been  made  on  him.     He  said  he 
read  them  all  carefully  and  if  he  saw  anything  he  consid- 
ered good  in  them  he  jotted  it  down  in  his  memory,  but  as 
he  being  at  the  seat  of  war,  and  the  critics  located  thou- 
sands of  miles  away  in  their  peaceful  homes,  from  his  ad- 
vantage of  position  better  capable  of  judging  what  was  the 
best  thing  to  do  at  the  critical  time,  fought  the  battles  on 
his  own  plans  and  as  he  won,  of  course  had  the  satisfaction 
of  being  credited  with  having  done  right. 

In  training  a  trotting  horse  never  take  anything  for 
granted.  If  he  wins  a  race  or  goes  a  good  trial  do  not  close 
the  account  and  sit  down  and  think  to  yourself  that  he 
could  not  have  been  better  trained  or  better  driven.  After 
your  horse  has  made  a  performance,  while  the  matter  is 
fresh  in  your  mind,  study  it  over  carefully  and  see  whether 

26 


396  LIFE  WITH   THE  TKOTTERS. 

tLere  was  not  some  place  wliere  you  could  have  improved 
tlie  training  or  driving  of  him.  In  driving  against  other 
people,  study  their  methods  and  ]olans  as  much  as  j)Ossible. 
I  do  not  wish  to  be  understood  as  advising  you  to  imitate 
them  at  all  times.  What  I  mean  is,  to  learn  all  you  can  by 
close  observation,  j)ick  out  what  you  consider  the  best 
i:)oints,  and  use  them  to  make  a  trade-mark  for  yourself. 
If  you  expect  to  shine  in  the  xorofession  to  any  great  extent, 
you  will  have  to  have  methods  that  are  recognized  as  j)urely 
your  own.  In  Mace' s  style  of  driving,  peojDle  often  thought 
that  his  success  was  not  the  result  of  well-laid  plans,  but 
a  sort  of  inspiration  of  the  moment  as  it  were.  Such,  I  am 
sure,  was  not  the  case.  While  he  had  all  the  brilliancy  and 
dash  of  what  would  be  termed  in  army  circles  a  "raider," 
he  also  appreciated  the  advantage  obtained  by  having  cor- 
rect information  as  to  the  strength  of  the  enemy,  and  a  plan 
of  battle  to  attack  him  from.  At  the  last  critical  moment 
when  a  little  thing  would  decide  the  battle,  Mace  would 
come  with  a  wild  rush  that  looked  as  though  it  did  not  con- 
tain much  in  its  elements  in  the  way  of  plans.  This  was 
only  the  finish  of  his  plan  of  attack,  as  I  liave  had  i)roven 
to  me  without  a  doubt.  He  has  often  told  me  in  talking- 
over  some  coming  event,  just  what  he  v^ould  do,  where  he 
would  make  his  drive,  and  w^hat  the  result  would  be.  The 
best  driver  in  the  world,  with  his  nicely  laid  x^lans  may  make 
mistakes.  But  the  driver  who  is  the  best  lawyer  and  does 
everything  after  a  j)lan,  looks  after  the  details  the  closest, 
and  is  naturally  a  reinsman,  will  with  the  same  quality  of 
horses  obtain  better  results  than  any  driver  can  who  goes 
about  it  in  a  haphazard  manner.  In  my  j^ounger  days  I 
made  the  acquaintance  of  William  Hay  ward,  the  celebrated 
jockey,  and  in  him  was  demonstrated  the  correctness  of  this 
rule  more  than  any  man  I  ever  saw.  I  have  seen  him  ride 
all-distance  races  and  that  he  rode  them  extremely  well  has 
been  proven  over  and  over  again  w  ithout  any  doubt.  His 
judgment  of  pace  is  something  wonderful.  If  he  w^as  to 
ride  a  horse  a  mile,  he  could  tell  you  before  he  started  how 


LIFE   WITH   THE  TKOTTERS.  397 

well  the  horse  ought  to  go,  each  fractional  part  of  it,  in 
order  to  make  his  best  possible  record.  I  have  often  seen 
men  in  running  and  trotting  races  both  make  a  very  serious 
mistake,  particularly  in  riding  or  driving  what  we  call  a 
waiting  race.  They  would  sim^^ly  be  governed  by  how 
slow  the  other  man  went.  I  saw  Turner  once  win  a  race  of 
this  kind  through  a  mistake  of  his  op]3onent.  In  a  race 
that  came  off  in  1876  one  of  the  starters  was  a  horse  noted 
for  speed,  and  also  lack  of  ability  to  stay,  the  other  one 
with  not  as  much  speed  but  plenty  of  game.  The  speedy 
horse  won  the  first  two  heats,  the  game  one  then  came  to 
the  front  and  won  the  next  two.  As  a  forlorn  liojie,  some 
one  suggested  putting  Turner  up  behind  the  what  looked  to 
be  at  this  time  the  beaten  animal,  and  here  is  where  Turner 
made  an  impression  on  some  j)eoiDle  that  his  title  was  not 
an  empty  one.  In  scoring  for  the  fifth  heat.  Turner  s  ani- 
mal seemed  to  be  entirely  without  si)eed.  They  scored 
several  times,  finally  got  the  word  both  horses  going  at  a  very 
moderate  gait,  Turner  apparently  clucking  and  switching 
his  horse  along  for  all  there  was  in  him  and  the  other  gen- 
tleman with  his  horse  in  front,  driving  him  with  as  much 
confidence  apparently  as  though  the  race  was  over.  In  fact, 
everybody  who  looked  at  the  performance  gave  it  up  as  a 
settled  fact,  and  were  very  much  surprised  when  the  horses 
straightened  into  the  stretch.  Turner  pulled  his  mare  out 
and  went  at  her  about  the  same  as  Garrison  would  at  a 
quarter  horse,  brushed  the  other  man's  horse  off  his  feet, 
he  being  taken  unawares,  and  thereby  losing  the  race.  If 
Hay  ward  had  been  driving  this  horse  from  his  knowledge 
of  pace  and  his  horse  having  the  ability  to  go,  he  wouldn't 
have  X3aid  any  attention  to  General  Turner,  but  would  have 
set  the  pace  fast  enough  to  have  insured  the  General's 
defeat,  or  in  other  words  would  have  driven  his  own  horse  in 
the  manner  he  thought  best  calculated  to  win. 

Always  remember  one  thing,  that  you  are  not  the  only 
man  that,  as  the  boys  say,  is  doing  a  little  clieating.  You 
may  have  your  own  horse  under  cover,  know  that  he  is 


398  LIFE  WITH   THE  TKOTTEES. 

in  proper  condition,  and  that  yon  can  drive  him  well. 
Always  remember  that  some  other  man  may  have  the  tools 
to  do  just  as  well  with.  I  have  often  heard  people  say  that 
a  still  tongue  indicates  a  wise  head.  I  think  that  to  a  cer- 
tain extent  this  is  so.  There  was  one  trait  about  Mace  which 
resembles  a  point  in  the  character  of  "Veritas,"  who  was  a 
warm  friend  of  Mace,  and  that  was  this:  If  Mace  had  a  race 
against  you  and  was  anxious  to  find  out  what  you  thought 
about  your  horse  he  would  interview  you  on  a  plan  of  his 
own.  He  would  not  take  you  by  the  arm  and  walk  you 
away  into  some  secluded  spot  in  a  mysterious  manner  and 
cross- question  you  as  a  lawyer  would,  but  if  he  happened 
to  meet  you  with  a  i3arty  of  friends,  would  in  a  laughing, 
jolly  manner  turn  the  conversation  on  the  matter  of  the 
race,  and  while  he  told  you  how  well  his  horse  was  going 
and  what  he  expected  to  do  with  him,  would  listen  very 
carefully  to  any  remark  that  you  might  drop  about  your 
horse.  After  you  got  through  talking  you  would  go  away 
with  the  feeling  that  you  knew  all  about  Mace' s  business 
and  that  he  had  been  unable  to  get  any  pointers  from  you. 
But  if  you  would  take  the  trouble  to  think  it  over  carefully, 
you  would  find  that  while  Mace  had  done  a  good  deal  of 
talking  and  said  some  wise  and  good  things  the  information 
on  a  particular  point  would  be  very  vague.  I  have  found 
that  in  interviewilig  a  man  ' '  Veritas ' '  invariably  follows  the 
same  tactics.  If  there  is  any  subject  that  he  wishes  to  get 
your  opinion  of  for  publication  or  otherwise,  he  does  not 
approach  you  with  his  X)encil  and  book  in  hand,  but  on  the 
contrary  strolls  in  as  though  he  had  come  for  a  social  chat. 
Does  not  even  start  the  conversation  off  on  the  subject  he 
wishes  to  interview  you  on  but  leads  up  to  it  gradually  and 
before  the  man  fairly  knows  it  he  is  interviewed  and  has 
unbosomed  himself  to  the  fullest  extent.  If  you  want  to, 
as  the  boys  say,  throw  the  xoublic  off  and  keep  them  from 
watching  and  touting  your  horse,  find  out  how  well  they 
think  he  can  go  and  whenever  you  are  going  to  work  him 
invite  them  out  to  time  him.     If  he  shouldn't  happen  to  go 


LIFE   WITH   THE  TEOTTEES.  399 

as  well  as  they  imagine  lie  ought  to  in  his  work  after  the 
trouble  they  have  taken  to  time  him,  they  will  be  more  than 
likely  to  conclude  they  had  liim  overrated  and  will  not 
take  as  much  pains  to  watch  him  as  they  would  if  you  had 
not  asked  them  to  time  him.  If,  on  the  contrary,  you  act 
in  a  mysterious  manner  with  your  horse,  they  will  be  sure 
to  watch  you  all  the  closer.  Never  tell  a  man  an  untruth 
about  your  horse  or  business  in  any  way.  If  you  are  asked 
any  questions  which  you  think  you  can  not  aiford  to  give  a 
truthful  answer  to,  tell  the  gentleman  in  a  polite  and  pleas- 
ant manner  that  you  would  be  glad  to  give  him  a  tip  but  on 
this  particular  occasion  for  reasons  which  you  can  not 
explain,  yon  are  in  a  position  where  you  will  be  unable  to 
furnish  the  information  he  desires  and  the  chances  are  that 
by  so  doing  you  will  make  the  man  your  friend  instead  of 
yoiir  enemy  by  telling  him  an  untruth. 

Many  a  man  has  labored  under  a  disadvantage  from  the 
simple  fact  of  his  not  being  a  good  talker.  Oftentimes  jjoints 
arise  in  races  where  the  manner  in  which  the  facts  are  placed 
before  the  judges  count  for  as  much  as  it  would  in  a  lawyer 
making  a  plea  before  a  judge  and  jury.  I  once  had  an 
-acquaintance  of  the  name  of  John  Hornbeck,  and  with  cer- 
tain classes  of  horses  in  training  and  driving  he  was  an 
expert,  and  the  simx^le  fact  of  his  being  unable  to  express 
himself  in  i)roper  language,  I  am  sure  often  worked  to  his 
disadvantage.  The  smartest  lawyer  in  the  world  would  not 
do  as  well  before  a  jury  were  he  unable  to  express  himself 
in  a  pleasant  and  intelligent  manner  as  another  man  with 
less  ability,  who  had  more  of  the  Daniel  O'Connell  style 
about  him.  Never  feel  that  because  you  are  a  beginner  that 
you  will  never  make  a  rexDutation  for  yourself  equal  to  that 
of  Hiram  Woodruff  or  Budd  Doble.  Start  out  with  the 
determination  of  not  only  making  a  reputation  equal  to 
theirs  but  of  excelling  it,  and  if  you  are  born  with  the  same 
natural  ability  that  they  had,  it  ought  to  be  an  easy  matter 
for  you  to  excel  tliem  from  the  fact  of  you  having  their 
experience  to  study  from,  something  that  I  think  of  very 


400  LIFE   WITH  THE  TROTTERS. 

great  advantage.  If  I  had  my  life  to  lead  over,  there  are  a 
few  tilings  in  connection  with  my  business  which  I  would 
do  differently.  First,  if  I  wished  to  learn  to  be  a  horse- 
trainer,  I  would  take  as  much  pains  to  educate  myself  in 
every  detail  pertaining  to  horses  as  I  would  if  I  was  going 
to  fit  myself  for  any  other  business  in  life.  I  would  also  by 
my  acts  make  for  myself  a  reputation  for  honesty,  etc. ,  that 
would  never  be  questioned.  The  latter  part  of  it  not  only 
from  a  feeling  that  it  is  right  but  also  as  a  matter  of  busi- 
ness. Take  two  men  with  equal  ability  as  horse  drivers, 
one  with  the  rejjutation  of  being  strictly  honest  and  the 
other  i^erhaps  with  the  disposition  to  cheat  the  public  just 
a  little,  you  will  find  that  the  man  with  the  honest  reputation 
will  invariably  have  the  best  of  it.  Time  and  again  have  I 
seen  this  when  it  comes  to  a  close  decision  and  Murphy  or 
Doble  are  interested,  they  never  get  the  worst  of  it  and  are 
almost  sure  to  get  a  shade  the  best  of  it.  This  is  perfectly 
natural  in  human  nature,  as  if  you  are  called  upon  to  decide 
anything  between  two  men  in  the  same  position,  you  woukl 
be  almost  sure  to  do  the  same  thing.  My  advice  is  to  not  be 
only  strictly  honest  in  all  your  dealings  but  take  pains  to 
make  that  reputation  for  yourself.  Do  not  be  satisfied  by 
saying  that  you  are  honest  and  you  don' t  care  what  people 
think  about  you.  Remember  your  rei^utation,  to  a  certain 
extent,  is  to  you  what  a  bank  account  is  to  a  business  man. 
This  I  think  was  one  of  Mace's  weak  points.  People  often 
accused  him  of  doing  shady  things  which  he  never  did,  but 
he  from  carelessness  or  other  causes  did  not  take  the  trouble 
to  deny  it,  always  saying  to  me  that  so  long  as  the  people 
that  he  drove  for  were  satisfied  he  never  cared.  Truthful- 
ness to  his  emj)loyer  was  Mace's  religion,  and  had  he  given 
me  his  word  in  regard  to  anything  connected  with  a  horse- 
race, it  would  have  been  worth  just  the  same  to  metas  a 
Government  bond,  that  is  I  would  have  given  a  premium  for 
it.  I  am  sure  that  men  are  born  with  certain  characteristics. 
It  is  not  very  hard  work  for  an  honest  man  to  remain  honest. 
He  will  not  have  to  watch  or  educate  himself  on  that  point, 


LIFE  WITH  THE  TROTTEES.  401 

but  should  lie  fiud  a  little  weakness  in  his  character  in  that 
respect,  by  a  little  education  he  may  be  able  to  overcome  it 
the  same  as  he  Avould  any  other  fault.  I  do  not  wish  to  be 
understood  by  this  that  I  am  a  reformer,  as  I  always  look 
upon  that  class  of  peoj^le  with  a  good  deal  of  suspicion.  As 
this  book  is  intended  to  a  large  extent  to  be  matter-of-fact, 
and  I  hope  it  may  be  of  some  benefit  to  young  beginnei's, 
I  record  my  opinion  after  thirty  years  of  study. 


CHAPTER  Xyi. 

Budd  Doble  writes  in  a  chatty  aud  interesting  manner  of  Goldsmith  Maid  and 
Dexter — How  the  famous  brown  gelding  was  placed  in  his  stable  by  Hiram 
Woodruff — The  young  man's  doubts  and  fears  over  the  responsibility  he 
had  assumed — Lowering  Dexter 's  record  in  the  first  race  he  drove  him,  and 
becoming  more  confident — The  season  ends  with  a  mile  in  2:18  under 
saddle — Trotting  in  2:17i-  at  Buffalo  the  following  j'car  and  beating  the 
world's  record — How  the  young  reinsman  felt  on  that  momentous  occa- 
sion— Dexter  is  purchased  by  Mr.  Robert  Bonner  and  retired  from  the 
turf — The  story  of  Goldsmith  Maid,  the  champion  trotter  of  her  day,  and 
that  for  many  years  was  Queen  of  the  Turf — She  was  rough-gaitcd  when 
Mr.  Doble  got  her,  and  could  not  beat  2:30 — Her  first  race  a  disappointment 
to  him — A  new  system  of  training  adopted  the  following  spring  with  good 
results — The  wonderful  intelligence  di-played  by  the  Maid  both  in  the 
stable  and  on  the  track — She  knew  when  a  race  was  coming  off  and 
became  terribly  excited — Figuring  to  get  the  best  of  her  opponents — Her 
wonderful  afl'ection  for  Old  Charlie — A  happy  family  of  three  that  was 
finally  broken  up. 

In  fulltilment  of  a  promise  made  some  time  ago  to  the 
editor  and  publisher  of  this  book  I  have  consented  to  give, 
in  a  sketchy  and  desultory  manner,  some  facts  concerning 
two  horses  that  in  their  day  had  the  fastest  records  of  any 
animals  on  the  trotting  turf,  both  of  them  having  been 
driven  to  those  records  by  me. 

I  refer  of  course  to  Dexter  and  Goldsmith  Maid,  two 
trotters  whose  names  to-day  are  as  well  known  as  those  of 
other  animals  that  have  come  upon  the  scene  later  and 
trotted  even  faster  than  they  did,  and  whose  performances 
are  looked  back  to  by  horsemen  with  unabated  interest. 

It  was  in  July,  1866,  that  Dexter  went  into  my  stable, 
the  circumstances  of  my  taking  charge  of  the  brown  gelding, 
that  even  then  was  the  most  famous  horse  in  the  country, 

^402) 


LIFE   WITH   THE  TROTTERS.  403 

being  as  follows:  I  was  at  that  time  a  resident  of  Philadel- 
phia and  had  gone  to  New  York  at  the  request  of  my  friend 
Sam  Keyes  (still  alive  and  hearty  and  as  fond  as  ever  of 
pacers)  to  arrange  if  possible  for  a  race  between  the  pacer 
Magoozler  and  Dexter,  both  to  go  to  saddle.  Mr.  Keyes 
liad  told  me  to  make  the  match  for  85,000  if  I  could,  and 
the  reason  I  was  selected  to  conduct  the  negotiations  look- 
ing toward  the  race  was  because  it  Avas  intended  that  I 
should  ride  the  pacer,  and  the  further  fact  that  I  was  well 
acquainted  with  Hiram  Woodruff  and  somewhat  a  favorite 
of  his  made  it  natural  that  I  should  be  sent  on  the  mission. 
After  reaching  New  York  I  made  my  way  to  the  Fashion 
course  on  Long  Island,  it  being  the  day  that  Dexter  was  to 
trot  against  General  Butler  and  Yanderbilt.  When  I 
reached  the  track  I  met  Mr.  Woodruff  and  almost  the  first 
thing  he  said  to  me  was:  "  Come  over  here,  my  son,  and  I 
will  show  you  a  horse  that  is  in  condition."  He  referred 
of  course  to  Dexter,  and  we  went  together  to  the  gelding's 
stall,  and  I  can  remember  perfectly  well  with  what  boyish 
admiration  for  the  skill  of  Woodruff  I  gazed  on  the  hand- 
some animal  as  he  moved  about  the  box-stall  with  that  lithe, 
sinuous  motion  that  was  x^eculiarly  his  own.  Having  looked 
the  horse  over  from  all  jDolnts  I  thought  it  time  to 
broach  the  subject  of  my  visit,  and  accordingly  said:  "I 
have  a  proposition  to  make  to  you,  Mr.  Woodruff,"  and 
was  going  to  state  the  terms  when  he  interrupted  me  by 
saying:  "Well,  I  have  got  one  for  you."  Of  course  that 
stopped  my  tongue  at  once  and  I  w^aitedfor  wdiat  was  to  come 
next.  Said  Mr.  Woodruff:  "Dexter  has  been  sold  to  go 
west.  I  cannot  accompany  him,  and  the  man  to  w^bom  he 
now  belongs  wants  someone  that  can  train,  ride  and  drive 
him,  and  I  am  going  to  recommend  you  for  the  place." 

I  was  i:)ractically  speechless  witli  a  mingled  feeling  of 
astonishment,  pride  and  gratification  when  the  most  famous 
driver  in  the  world  said  this  to  me,  but  without  giving  me 
time  to  exj)ress  myself  in  the  matter  at  all  he  w^alked  with 
me  from  the  stables  to  the  track  and  as  we  stepped  on  the 


404  LIFE  WITH  THE  TROTTEES. 

quarter  stretch  in  front  of  the  grand  stand  said  to  me: 
' '  You  stay  here  until  I  find  the  man  Vv'ho  owns  Dexter. ' ' 
In  a  little  while  he  came  with  George  Trussell  and  said  to  him: 
"Here  is  a  young  man  that  I  can  recommend."  That  night 
I  arranged  with  Mr.  Trussell  to  take  temporary  charge  of 
Dexter  and  drive  him  in  his  race  at  Suffolk  Park  against 
George  M.  Patchen,  Jr.,  of  California,  that  event  being  fixed 
for  the  9th  of  July,  and  also  to  ride  him  a  week  later  in  a 
race  at  the  Fashion  track  against  General  Butler  and  To- 
ronto Chief.  Mr.  Trussell  said  that  he  would  send  the  horse 
to  me  at  Philadelphia  the  following  day  and  with  this  un- 
derstanding I  started  for  home. 

It  was  only  after  boarding  the  railroad  train  that  I  fully 
realized  the  experience  I  had  gone  through  with  during  the 
afternoon,  and  my  first  conclusion  was  that  I  had  made  a 
big  mistake.  I  reasoned  that  for  a  boy  like  me  to  take  such 
a  noted  horse  as  Dexter  from  the  hands  of  Hiram  Woodruff, 
the  foremost  trainer  and  driver  in  the  country,  was  assum- 
ing too  much,  and  all  that  night  I  could  not  get  this  notion 
out  of  my  head.  The  following  day  passed.  Dexter  did  not 
come,  and  I  felt  immensely  relieved,  but  that  nighc  I  re- 
ceived word  that  the  delay  was  caused  by  the  fact  that  Mr. 
Trussell  did  not  like  to  send  the  horse  through  the  streets 
of  New  York  on  the  Fourth  of  July,  and  that  he  would 
reach  my  stable  the  following  morning,  which  he  did.  Of 
course  I  had  been  able  to  think  of  little  else,  and  after 
learning  that  Dexter  was  surely  coming  to  me,  I  began  to 
retiect  about  his  management.  The  more  I  pondered  over 
the  matter  the  more  it  seemed  certain  to  me  that  he  Avas 
not  in  need  of  much  training.  I  knew  that  he  had  been 
given  plenty  of  work,  and  the  five-heat  race  that  week  had 
certainly  supplied  any  possible  deficiency  in  that  direction, 
so  that  my  notion  was  that  the  best  i)lan  to  pursue  w^ould 
be  to  give  the  horse  as  little  work  as  X)ossible,  devoting  all 
my  energies  to  getting  him  free  from  soreness  and  toning 
himux)  generally  for  the  race  that  was  to  come. 

Naturally  enough  all  this  responsibility  made  me  anx- 


LIFE   VflTH  THE  TROTTERS.  405 

ious,  and  another  thing  that  added  to  my  nervousness  was 
the  fact  that  the  newspapers  warned  the  public  against  bet- 
ting on  Dexter.  They  said  he  had  just  changed  hands, 
going  from  the  stable  of  the  best  driver  in  the  country  to 
that  of  a  young  man  who  had  had  little  experience,  and  that 
it  was  not  reasonable  to  expect  that  he  would  be  in  bis  best 
form.  At  that  time  Dexter' s  record  was  2:24^.  My  plan 
of  training,  luckily  for  me,  proved  the  prox)er  one,  and 
when  the  day  of  the  Suffolk  Park  race  came  Dexter  was  in 
fine  fettle,  beating  Patchen  easily  and  trotting  one  of  his 
heats  in  2:23^,  which  was  three-quarters  of  a  second  faster 
than  his  previous  best  record.  This  put  me  in  high  feather 
with  the  iDublic,  and,  not  unnaturally,  I  had  more  confi- 
dence in  myself,  so  that  when  we  went  to  the  Fashion  track 
to  trot  the  saddle  race  against  Butler  and  Toronto  Chief  I 
had  my  wits  about  me  and  won  rather  easily.  These  two 
races  at  two  ways  of  going  seemed  to  satisfy  Messrs.  Trussell 
&  Fawcett,  the  owners  of  Dexter,  that  I  was  competent  to 
take  charge  of  the  horse  and  we  then  made  a  contract  for 
the  balance  of  the  season. 

Dexter  was  the  most  nervous  horse  I  ever  handled  when 
he  was  in  the  stable  or  while  being  rigged  up,  and  he  was 
not  a  pleasant  horse  to  drive  unless  going  at  the  top  of  his 
speed  or  nearly  so.  He  was  an  irritable  horse  by  nature, 
peevish  in  disposition,  and  an  annoying  one  to  handle  at  all 
times  except  in  his  races.  This  was  the  only  time,  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  that  I  enjoyed  driving  Dexter,  but  a  safer 
horse  or  a  more  reliable  one  in  a  race  I  never  sat  behind. 
There  were  only  two  places  in  a  mile  where  he  needed  watch- 
ing, and  these  were  at  t!ie  first  and  tbird  turns.  He  was  a 
very  resolute  horse  on  the  track,  had  a  bold  way  of  going, 
and  was  so  ambitious  that  in  rounding  the  turns  he  was 
liable  to  overtrot  himself  and  break.  In  those  days  trotters 
were  trained  to  take  holdof  the  bit  pretty  strongly,  the  idea 
being  that  they  could  not  be  controlled  and  balanced  ns  well 
by  the  driver  under  any  other  circumstances,  although  of 
course  since  then  that  idea  has  been  exploded  and  horses 


406  LIFE   WITH   THE   TROTTERS. 

are  now  taught  to  drive  with  ^  very  light  pressure  of  the  bit. 
Dexter  was  in  no  sense  a  puller,  although  he  would  take 
hold  well  and  it  was  from  this  habit  that  he  was  so  liable 
to  sore  mouth,  which  was  one'  of  the  things  that  troubled 
him  more  or  less  during  his  entire  trotting  career. 

As  to  how  we  rigged  him,  it  should  be  remembered  that 
in  those  days  the  manufacture  of  horseboots  was  in  its 
infancy.  All  that  Dexter  wore  in  that  line  were  invented 
and  for  the  most  part  manufactured  by  his  rubber,  Peter 
Conover,  a  man  to  whom  a  great  deal  of  the  credit  of  Dex- 
ter' s  excellent  condition  was  always  due.  He  wore  a  knee 
boot  on  Dexter  s  near  forward  leg,  a  pair  of  speedy  cut  boots 
behind,  and  a  Y)air  of  old-fashioned  bell-pattern  quarter  boots. 
These  boots  Dexter  wore  in  his  races  and  work,  but  of  the 
latter  it  was  necessary  to  give  him  very  little.  Although  a 
horse  of  fine  physical  organization  and  a  good  feeder,  he  did 
not  make  liesh  fast,  being  so  nervous  and  irritable  that  he 
was  constantly  on  the  move  when  nobody  was  about  and 
seemed  by  tijis  means  to  keep  himself  from  getting  gross. 
During  the  trotting  season  all  the  work  Dexter  received 
besides  his  races  was  a  light  repeat  every  week,  and  these 
miles  were  generally  in  from  2:28  to  2:30 — that  being  as 
slow  in  fact  as  I  could  make  him  to  go  without  getting  him 
to  pulling  and  fretting.  When  it  came  to  his  jogging  I 
always  let  Conover  do  that  for  the  reason  that  Dexter,  who 
was  a  horse  of  a  great  deal  of  intelligence,  soon  learned  to 
know  me  and  his  idea  was  that  when  I  got  into  the  sulky 
it  meant  for  work,  and  whenever  I  would  try  to  jog  him  he 
would  pull,  and  lug  and  fret  so  much  that  it  was  hard  work 
on  me  and  did  him  more  harm  than  good. 

Omitting  any  detailed  mention  of  the  races  which  Dexter 
trotted  for  me  during  the  season  of  1866,  it  may  be  said  that 
I  was  successful  and  at  the  close  of  the  year  I  had  reduced 
his  record  in  harness  to  2:21  and  ridden  him  a  mile  in  2:18, 
which  was  the  fastest  that  a  trotter  had  gone,  any  way 
rigged.  As  to  the  famous  trial  against  the  watch  at  Buffalo 
in  1867,  when  he  showed  himself,  by  trotting  a  mile  in  2 :17J, 


LIFE   WITH   THE  TROTTERS.  407 

to  be  the  greatest  horse  in  the  world,  I  can  only  say  that 
before  starting  on  that  jonrney  I  had  every  confidence  that 
the  horse  would  do  all  that  was  asked  of  him.  Just  jDrevious 
to  this  he  had  been  going  some  very  good  races  against 
Brown  George  and  running  mate,  trotting  at  Troy,  N.  Y., 
on  the  16th  of  July  in  2:22,  2:20^,  2:20^,  and  at  Provi- 
dence, doing  a  mile  in  2:20f.  Then  we  went  to  Boston  where 
Dexter  trotted  the  second  heat  over  a  half-mile  track  in  2:19, 
that  being  the  first  time  that  he  had  gone  a  mile  better  than 
2:20  in  liarness,  the  first  time  that  Flora  Temple's  record  of 
2:19|,  made  in  1859,  had  been  lowered  by  a  horse  trotting 
in  harness,  and  also  the  best  time  to  that  date  over  a  half- 
mile  track.  The  Boston  race  took  place  July  30,  and  the 
trial  against  time  at  Buffalo  was  set  for  August  14.  The 
conditions  were  that  the  horse  was  to  trot  to  beat  2:19|. 

I  remember  that  the  day  was  a  very  fine  one,  the  track 
first  class,  and  that  a  great  crowd  of  peo^ole  were  p>resent. 
After  giving  Dexter  a  warming-up  mile  in  2:21^  I  cooled 
him  out  and  came  back  in  twenty  minutes  for  the  grand 
effort.  Of  course  I  was  anxious  that  the  horse  should  do 
the  best  work  that  he  was  capable  of  and  at  the  same  time 
confident  that  unless  some  mistake  was  made  he  w^ould  trot 
a  mile  in  2:18  or  better.  At  that  time  the  practice  of  drivers 
carrying  watches  and  timing  their  own  miles  Avas  not  in 
vogue,  Ave  being  obliged  to  judge  of  the  pace  as  best  we  could 
and  figure  on  how  near  to  the  limit  of  our  horse's  speed  we 
were  going.  My  idea  was  to  get  Dexter  safely  around  the 
first  turn,  at  which  point  as  I  have  said  he  was  a  little  apt 
to  overtrot  himself,  and  then  let  him  rate  along  about  as  he 
saw  fit.  I  knew  that  he  was  a  horse  of  so  much  courage  and 
ambition  that  he  would  do  i^retty  nearly  his  best  without 
any  urging  at  all,  and  it  was  my  calculation  to  follow  this 
programme  until  three-quarters  of  a  mile  had  been  trotted 
and  then  drive  him  through  the  stretch  as  well  as  I  could. 
This  plan  was  strictly  adhered  to.  I  knew  the  horse  was 
going  Avell  all  the  time  and  as  we  finished  the  mile  made  up 
my  mind  that  it  had  been  done  in  2:18  or  a  little  better.     Of 


408  LIFE  WITH  THE  TEOTTEES. 

course  wlien  2:17|^  was  hung  out  there  was  tremendous  ex- 
citement and  a  crowd  of  my  friends  rushed  out  to  congratu- 
late me  on  what  I  had  done.  Mr.  Fawcett,  who  owned 
Dexter,  was  a  very  quiet  man,  not  given  to  exhibiting  his 
emotions  in  a  marked  degree,  but  all  the  same  I  saw  that 
he  was  very  much  x^leased.  As  soon  as  the  excitement  had 
in  some  measure  abated  it  was  announced  from  the  judges' 
stand  that  Dexter  had  been  sold  to  Mr.  Robert  Bonner  for 
$33,000  and  after  filling  a  few  more  engagements  which  had 
previously  been  made  for  him  he  was  delivered  to  that  gen- 
tleman and  remained  his  property  until  the  day  of  his  death, 
which  occurred  during  the  last  year. 

A  good  deal  has  been  said  at  various  times  to  the  effect 
that  Dexter  was  a  vicious  horse,  and  j)eople  Avho  saw  him 
in  his  stable  generally  went  away  with  that  idea  firmly 
impressed  on  their  minds.  As  a  matter  of  fact  Dexter  was 
not  nearly  as  bad  as  he  pretended  to  be.  It  is  true  that  if 
a  person  went  into  his  stall  he  would  run  at  them  and  if 
they  retreated  would  follow  them,  although  I  do  not  think 
that  even  then  he  would  have  injured  anybody.  It  was 
simply  a  bluff  on  his  part,  that  trick  of  rushing  at  people, 
and  he  would  stop  quickly  enough  if  a  man  stood  his  ground 
and  threw  up  his  hand  at  him.  He  was  certainly  not  a 
pleasant -tempered  horse,  but  I  should  not  class  him  as  a 
vicious  animal.  Like  a  great  many  other  horses  he  had  his 
favorites  among  men,  and  while  to  most  people  he  w^as 
cross,  he  conceived  strong  affection  for  Peter  Conover,  his 
groom,  and  would  j)ay  not  the  slightest  attention  to  him 
when  he  w^as  in  the  stall.  In  fact  Conover  slej)t  in  the  stall, 
which  is  pretty  good  evidence  that  Dexter  never  had  any 
intention  of  harming  b im.  I  have  said  that  Dexter  was  an  i n- 
telligent  horse,  and  he  was  also  a  fanciful  fellow,  one  notion 
of  his  that  comes  to  my  mind  illustrating  this  very  w^ell. 
Whenever  Ave  w^anted  to  take  Dexter  through  the  streets  of 
a  town  or  city  we  would  put  a  boy  on  his  back  and  then  he 
would  lead  along  as  soberly  as  any  horse  you  ever  saw,  but 
if  you  tried  to  take  him  over  the  same  route  without  the  boy 


LIFE   WITH   THE   TROTTERS.  409 

astride  of  liim  lie  would  cavort  about  in  such  a  manner  as 
to  be  in  constant  danger  of  seriously  injuring  liimself. 

So  far  as  Goldsmith  Maid  is  concerned  a  book  could  be 
written  about  that  wonderful  mare,  and  for  that  very  reason 
it  follows  that  what  appears  in  these  pages  must  necessarily 
be  of  a  sketchy  character.  Even  now,  a  dozen  years  after 
she  was  retired  from  the  turf,  the  public  is  perfectly  famil- 
iar with  Goldsmith  Maid  and  her  Avonderf ul  performances 
on  the  trotting  turf,  so  that  I  shall  not  attempt  in  any  man- 
ner to   consider  that  jihase   of  her  career. 

When  I  got  Goldsmith  Maid  she  was  eight  years  old  and 
had  a  record  of  about  2: 32.  Iler  early  history  was  a  romantic 
one,  viewed  from  the  standx)oint  of  subsequent  events,  and  it 
seems  strange  that  a  mare  that  for  years  was  regarded  as  too 
willful  for  harness  purposes  on  the  farm  where  she  was  bred, 
and  whose  sj)eed  as  a  racer  was  put  to  the  test  by  the 
farmer  s  boys  on  moonlight  nights  when  there  were  quarter- 
mile  running  races  to  be  decided  in  a  lane  not  far  from 
where  they  lived,  should  in  a  few  years  not  only  become 
famous  as  a  trotter,  but  do  a  mile  so  much  faster  than  any 
other  horse  that  from  that  time  on  there  was  never  any 
question  as  toiler  supremacy;  and  that  when  she  retired 
from  the  turf  was  just  as  much  the  queen  as  she  was  five 
years  before  that  when  she  had  first  trotted  in  2:14.  In 
those  years  she  had  fought  her  way  step  by  step)  to  tlie  very 
front  of  the  trotting  turf,  and  once  arrived  there  had  held 
undisiDuted  sway,  not  only  in  the  matter  of  winning  races 
against  other  horses,  but  also  in  trotting  against  the  watch, 
a  far  harder  sort  of  race,  and  had  successively  loAvered  the 
trotting  record  of  the  world  from  2:17^,  the  time  made  by 
Dexter  at  Buffalo  in  1866  when  I  drove  him,  to  2:14,  which 
figures  were  the  best  when  Goldsmith  Maid  retired  in  1877, 
But  2:14  was  not  destined  for  a  very  great  length  of  time  to 
be  the  limit  of  si^eed  in  the  trotting  horse,  for  the  next 
season  after  the  Maid  went  out  of  the  harness  for  good 
Rarus  trotted  in  2:13J,  and  then  in  rapid  succession  came 
St.  Julieii,  Maud  S.,  and  Jay-Eye-See. 


410  LIFE   WITH  THE  TEOTTEKS. 

I  have  said  that  when  Goldsmith  Maid  came  into  my 
stable  she  was  about  eight  years  old,  and  at  that  time 
she  could  trot  a  mile  in  about  2:30.  This  was  in  the  latter 
part  of  October,  1867,  and  it  might  be  well  to  state  here 
how  the  mare  came  to  be  driven  by  me.  It  will  be  remem- 
bered that  after  the  sale  of  Dexter  to  Mr.  Robert  Bonner  the 
horse  still  luul  several  engagements  to  fill,  and  as  he  was 
transferred  subject  to  these  he  remained  in  my  charge  for  a 
month  after  the  sale  was  made.  Going  from  Buffalo  to 
Hamilton,  Canada,  I  drove  liim  a  race  against  Bolly  Lewis, 
who  went  under  saddle,  and  from  there  we  shipped  west  to 
Chicago,  where  a  couple  of  races  had  been  arranged,  tl:e 
first  being  against  Silas  Rich,  Bashaw,  Jr.,  Tackey  and  Gen- 
eral Butler,  in  which  Dexter  went  to  wagon,  the  otliers  in 
harness;  and  the  second  against  Brown  George  and  running 
mate.  Dexter  won  both  these  races,  the  fastest  mile  he  was 
called  upon  to  trot  being  2:22,  and  they  ended  my  connec- 
tion with  the  horse. 

While  I  was  at  Chi(3ago  with  Dexter  I  received  a  letter 
from  Mr.  Alden  Goldsmith,  proposing  that  I  train  and  drive 
Goldsmith  Maid  and  asking  me  what  I  thought  of  the  propo- 
sition. Another  letter  that  reached  me  at  the  same  time 
was  from  the  owner  of  Lucy,  a  mare  that  at  that  time  had  a 
record  of  2:28,  was  considered  to  be  one  of  the  best  trotters 
on  the  turf,  and  that  subsequently  made  a  mark  of  2:18 J. 
I  had  seen  both  of  these  mares  trot,  and  while  Lucy  had  a 
good  deal  the  best  retord  of  the  two  and  could  unquestion- 
ably go  a  mile  faster  than  Goldsmith  Maid,  still  I  had 
noticed  the  latter  jDarticularly  in  a  race  that  summer,  and 
had  seen  her  at  that  time  strike  a  clip  that  made  me  think 
she  would  be  a  first-class  race-mare  if  only  she  could  be 
taught  to  stay  on  a  clean  trot  and  not  go  back  to  the  rough 
and  hitching  gait  that  she  was  at  that  time  inclined  to  favor. 
So  after  giving  the  matter  considerable  thought,  I  finally 
decided  to  decline  the  proposition  from  Lucy' s  owner  and 
accept  that  of  Mr.  Goklsmith,  Init  subsequently  Lucy  was 
also  in  my  stable,  and  I  gave  her  a  record  of  2:22^.     Conse- 


LIFE    WITH   THE  TROTTERS.  411 

quently  on  my  return  to  New  York  I  met  Mr.  Goldsmith 
and  arranged  to  take  the  mare,  the  first  race  in  which  I 
drove  her  being  at  Providence,  R.  I.,  in  the  latter  part  of 
October.  The  other  starters  in  this  event  were  May  Queen, 
Confidence,  Colonel  Maynard,  Crazy  Jane,  Old  Put  and 
Bruno.  Goldsmith  Maid  won  the  first  heat  in  2:31J,  the 
second  in  2:28|,  and  the  fourth  in  2:31,  May  Queen  beating 
her  the  third  heat  in  2:31.  Now,  although  this  was  my  first 
effort  with  Goldsmith  Maid  and  she  won  for  me,  I  did  not 
feel  particularly  proud  of  the  result,  as  she  was  unsteady, 
far  from  good-gaited,  and  more  than  all,  by  her  getting  a 
record  of  2:29|^  I  had  barred  her  out  of  the  big  purse  at  Buf- 
falo for  2:30  horses  that  was  already  announced  for  the  fol- 
lowing season,  and  all  these  things  put  together  made  me 
rather  disgruntled  over  the  matter,  but  I  had  not  at  all  lost 
faith  in  the  ability  of  the  mare  after  she  had  been  properly 
trained. 

That  was  her  last  race  in  1867,  and  while  I  was  having 
her  looked  after  the  following  winter  I  gave  the  subject  of 
her  training  considerable  thought,  as  I  felt  that  to  make  a 
success  of  her  as  a  race-mare  would  require  a  good  deal  of 
study.  It  may  seem  strange  to  many  people  who  afterward 
saw  Goldsmith  Maid  when  she  could  trot  five  or  six  heats  in 
one  afternoon  better  than  2:20  and  could  go  a  mile  almost 
any  day  from  2:16  to  2:14,  that  there  could  have  been  a  time 
in  her  life  when  she  was  not  a  good-gaited  trotter.  Of  course 
I  know  that  she  was,  even  after  she  became  a  very  fast  mare, 
what  we  call  a  handy  one— that  is,  could  recover  quickly 
from  a  break,  but  at  the  time  I  am  now  writing  of  she  was 
absolutely  rough  and  broken  gaited  and  would  only  occa- 
sionally strike  a  square,  pure  trot,  but  when  she  would  do 
this  she  went  faster  than  at  any  other  time.  I  knew  that  at 
no  gait  except  a  square  trot  would  she  ever  make  much 
speed  or  attain  prominence  on  the  turf  and  so  resolved  that 
when  spring  came  I  would  keep  her  on  a  square  trot,  no 
matter  if  she  could  not  go  better  than  a  four-minute  gait. 
With    this  plan    in    mind    I    began  jogging  the  Maid  in 

27 


412  LIFK  WITH   THE  TROTTERS. 

the  spring  of  1868  and  carried  out  my  system  to  the 
letter. 

I  looked  after  the  matter  personally,  and  the  only  point 
I  had  in  view  was  to  keep  her  on  a  trot.  Of  course  this 
meant  that  I  must  go  slow  with  her,  just  as  it  does  with  any 
horse  that  is  inclined  to  be  rough-gaited,  because  the  instant 
they  are  driven  a  little  faster  than  they  can  trot  easily  they 
will  begin  to  roll  in  their  gait  and  eventuallj^  hitch  and  adopt 
that  scrambling  motion  behind  that  is  so  distasteful  to  the 
admirers  of  a  pure  trotting  gait.  I  continued  this  for  some 
time,  and  after  awhile  I  could  see  that  the  Maid  l^egan  to  go 
a  little  faster.  She  Avas  not  a  mare  that  at  any  time  in  her 
career  made  speed  early  in  the  spring,  or  in  fact  had  much 
speed  at  any  time  when  she  was  out  of  condition,  and  of 
course  at  this  time  when  her  best  gait  was  only  a  little  better 
than  2:30  she  was  going  very  slowly  indeed  under  the  system 
I  adopted.  Bur,  as  I  said  before,  there  was  finally  an  im- 
provement and  when  the  warm  weather  came  and  I  could 
send  her  along  some  I  was  greatly  pleased  to  find  that  she 
had  lost  much  of  the  disposition  to  become  rough  in  her  gait 
and  hitch  Avhen  asked  to  go  as  well  as  she  could.  I  shall 
not  attempt  at  this  time  to  give  any  detailed  account  of  the 
work  done  that  season,  contentingmyself  by  saying  that  I  won 
eight  good  races  Avith  her  against  American  Girl,  General 
Butler,  Rhode  Island,  George  Wilkes,  George  Palmer,  and 
other  famous  horses  of  that  day,  reducing  her  record  to 
2:22J,  and  demonstrating  that  she  was  not  out-classed  at  all 
when  going  against  the  best  ones  in  the  land. 

I  have  been  exjilicit  in  what  I  had  to  say  about  this  matter 
of  Goldsmith  Maid's  gait  because  it  seems  to  me  to  contain 
a  valuable  lesson  to  any  man  who  is  learning  the  business  of 
training  horses,  or  Avho  may  at  any  time  have  occasion  to 
look  after-  a  fast  trotter.  Everybody  at  all  posted  in  matters 
pertaining  to  the  trotting  turf  knows  that  in  these  days  a 
rough-gaited  horse  stands  very  little  chance  of  Avinning  in 
his  class,  and  although  there  are  a  good  many  men  aa^io  will 
contend  that  no  animal  can  be  broken  of  this  habit,  I  think 


LIFE    WITH   THE  TROTTERS.  413 

I  have  shown  that  in  the  case  of  Goldsmith  Maid  patient 
and  careful  handling  accomplished  the  desired  result. 

In  regard  to  the  actual  training  of  Goldsmith  Maid  after 
she  became  a  first-class  trotter,  I  can  Avrite  but  very  little 
because  no  trotter  I  ever  had  needed  less  training  than  this 
mare.  As  a  matter  of  fact  she  did  not  Avant  any  training  at 
all  in  the  ordinary  sense  of  the  word  so  long  as  she  trotted 
a  race  every  week,  for  the  excitement  and  exertion  of  these 
contests  served  to  keep  her  in  excellent  X3hysical  condition, 
so  that  she  was  always  ready  to  go  at  her  best  rate  of  speed 
and  continued  doing  it  as  long  as  she  possibly  could.  I  have 
said  above  that  she  was  a  mare  whose  speed  came  to  her 
only  after  she  was  in  training,  and  as  long  as  I  had  her  I 
found  this  to  be  the  case.  Ever}?^  sj^tring  she  would  show  no 
speed  at  all  until  the  season  was  j)retty  well  advanced  and 
then  her  old  forai  would  retui'n  and  in  a  very  short  time 
she  would  be  in  racing  trim.  After  that  there  was  very  little 
work  needed.  All  she  wanted  was  the  jogging  that  would 
ordinarily  be  given  to  trotters  in  training  and  between  her 
races  a  repeat  in  about  2:40.  An  easier  horse  to  train  than 
Goldsmith  Maid,  once  I  got  the  hang  of  her,  was  never  under 
my  care.  She  was  a  great  feeder  though,  and  I  gave  her 
j)lenty  to  eat,  her  specialty  in  that  line  being  hay.  I  never 
saw  a  horse  of  her  size  that  would  eat  anything  like  the 
amount  of  hay  that  Goldsmith  Maid  would.  Of  course  she 
got  plenty  of  it  at  all  times,  and  on  the  evening  before  the 
day  on  which  she  was  to  trot  a  I'ace  I  would  have  a  big  pile 
of  it  put  in  her  stall — half  as  much  again  as  you  would  give 
a  sixteen-hand  horse  that  was  a  hearty  feeder — and  in  the 
morning  every  wisp  of  it  would  be  gone.  On  the  morning 
of  the  day  that  she  was  to  trot  in  a  race  I  would  jog  her 
three  miles  and  at  the  finish  let  her  move  through  the 
stretch  for  a  ways,  and  when  she  struck  a  gait  that  pleased 
me  I  would  pull  her  up.  Slie  would  get  a  light  feed  of  hay 
after  her  work,  and  that  was  all  the  ' '  drawing ' '  that  I  found 
necessary  in  her  case. 

Of  course  so  intelligent  a  mare  as  Goldsmith  Maid  and 


414  LIFE   WITH   THE   TROTTERS. 

one  that  had  been  on  the  turf  for  so  many  years  got  to  know 
a  great  many  things,  the  recognition  of  which  would  appear 
strange  in  an  ordinary  horse.  She  was  just  as  well  aware 
when  a  race  was  coming  off  as  was  the  secretary  of  the  track 
over  which  it  was  to  take  place,  and  the  way  she  found  it 
out  was  by  the  change  in  her  food  and  other  treatment  that 
I  have  indicated.  Of  course  in  order  to  keep  her  from  eat- 
ing hay  on  the  day  of  a  race  it  was  necessary  to  halter 
her  in  the  stable  and  as  this  was  never  done  at  any  other 
time  she  knew,  the  minute  that  halter  went  on  what  it 
meant.  After  Old  Charlie  had  tied  her  head  up  she  would 
stand  there  contented  enough  until  the  fore  part  of  the 
afternoon.  She  seemed  to  know  that  by  this  time  her  race 
ought  to  be  called,  and  she  would  become  nervous,  jumj:*, 
kick,  rear,  and  plunge  about  tlie  stall  in  a  manner  that  left  not 
the  slightest  doubt  in  the  minds  of  those  who  saAvher  that  she 
knew  exactly  what  was  coming  off  and  was  anxious  for  the 
battle  to  begin.  Even  after  we  would  put  her  harness  on 
and  take  her  out  of  the  stall  there  was  no  diminution  in  the 
excitement  she  showed.  She  would  stand  quietly  enough 
while  being  hitched  to  the  sulky,  but  she  would  shake  and 
tremble  until  I  have  heard  her  feet  make  the  same  noise 
against  the  hard  ground  that  a  person's  teeth  will  when  the 
body  is  suddenly  chilled — that  is  her  feet  actually  chattered 
on  the  ground.  The  instant  I  would  get  into  the  sulky  all 
this  would  pass  away  and  she  would  start  in  a  walk  for  the 
track  as  sober  as  any  old  horse  you  ever  saw. 

This  faculty  of  remembering  things  and  of  actually  seem- 
ing to  draw  conclusions  for  herself,  which  Goldsmith  Maid 
possessed  in  a  greater  degree  than  any  other  horse  I  ever 
saw,  was  brought  into  full  play  Avhen  she  went  on  the 
track  to  trot  a  race  against  other  horses.  She  was  always 
trying  to  get  the  best  of  her  opponents  and  from  the  time 
we  left  the  barn  until  the  rfice  was  over  there  was  never  an 
instant  that  she  was  not  figuring  on  some  part  of  the  race. 
For  instance,  when  we  would  turn  to  score  the  Maid  would 
measure  the  distance  between  herself  and  the  other  horses, 


LIFE    WITH    THE  TROTTEES.  415 

would  seemingly  ca'  culate  the  chances  of  getting  to  the  wire 
on  even  terms  or  ahead,  of  them,  and  if  she  concluded  that 
they  would  have  the  best  of  it  there  was  no  use  of  my  try- 
ing to  get  her  there  first,  because  she  simply  would  not  go. 
I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  she  would  stop,  or  anything  of 
tliat  sort,  but  slie  wouhl  not  get  into  her  best  rate  of  speed, 
nor  would  she  try  to  do  so,  and  the  result  would  be  that 
the  judges,  seeing  that  tlie  start  would  be  an  unfair  one, 
would  ring  the  recall  bell.  On  the  contrary,  if  she  had  a 
good  chance  to  beat  the  other  horses  in  scoring  she  would 
go  along  gradually  with  them  until  pretty  close  to  the  wire 
and  then  of  her  own  accord  come  with  a  terrible  rush  of 
speed  so  that  when  the  word  was  given  she  would  almost 
invariably  be  going  the  best  clip  of  any  horse  of  the  x^arty. 
Once  the  word  was  given  she  knew  it  as  well  as  any  of  the 
drivers  and  there  was  no  trouble  with  her  from  that  time  on 
so  far  as  her  behavior  was  concerned.  If  she  had  the  pole 
she  would  make  it  a  point  to  see  that  no  horse  beat  her 
around  the  first  turn,  seeming  to  be  perfectly  well  aware 
that  the  animal  that  trotted  on  the  outside  had  a  good  deal 
the  worst  of  it,  and  she  had  no  intention  of  losing  her  posi- 
tion next  the  rail  unless  she  was  fairly  out-trotted. 

And  now  in  regard  to  Goldsmith  Maid's  habit  of  occa- 
sionally making  a  short  break  while  trotting  a  hear.  A 
good  many  people  who  of  course  had  not  given  the  matter 
close  attention  imagined  that  she  gained  by  these  breaks 
and  this  idea  became  prevalent  with  tlie  xnd)lic.  Of  course 
it  came  about  from  the  evident  fact  that  after  making  a 
break  the  Maid  could  catch  again  without  losing  any 
ground,  and  this  was  as  far  as  people  looked  at  the  matter. 
It  is  true  that  she  was  a  very  handy  catchei-,  and  perhaps 
did  not  lose  anything  in  point  of  position  b}^  her  breaks, 
but  she  did  lose  very  materially  by  not  being  able  to  get 
into  her  stride  again  at  once,  and  to  show  that  this  is  the 
case  I  have  only  to  say  that  wlien  she  trotted,  on  three  dif- 
ferent occasions,  a  mile  for  me  in  2: 14,  and  another  time  in 
2:14^,  slie  never  made  a  break  in  either  mile  and  in  none  of 


410  LIFE    WITH   THE   TROTTERS. 

her  fast  miles  did  she  ever  leave  her  feet.  Tlie  first  time 
she  ever  trotted  in  2:14,  by  the  way,  she  went  every  qnarter 
in  exactly  33^  seconds,  which  shows  what  a  wonderful  mare 
she  was  to  rate  her  speed.  I  could  go  on  and  write  a  long- 
chapter  about  what  a  grand  race-mare  Goldsmith  Maid  was, 
but  the  public  is  well  aware  of  that  already.  In  this  respect  I 
think  she  was  the  greatest  trotter  that  the  world  has  ever 
seen  and  there  are  some  very  good  judges  on  this  point  who 
agree  with  me  perfectly. 

I  have  told  how  intelligent  the  Maid  was,  and  she  was 
also  human  in  other  respects,  being  very  fond  of  certain 
people  and  not  taking  at  all  to  others.  Old  Charlie,  who 
took  care  of  her  for  so  long  a  time,  and  who  for  one  period 
of  five  years  i)assed  only  two  nights  away  from  her  stall, 
was  the  one  of  whom  she  seemed  to  think  the  most  and 
next  to  him  came  the  little  dog  that  was  always  with  her. 
But  Old  Charlie  had  the  first  place  in  the  Maid's  affections 
and  this  was  very  plainly  shown  on  more  than  one  occasion, 
when  he  would  be  petting  the  dog  and  the  old  mare  would 
notice  it.  It  made  her  jealous  right  away  and  she  would 
turn  and  run  the  dog  out  of  the  stall,  although  when 
Charlie  was  not  around  or  when  he  did  not  pay  any  partic- 
ular attention  to  the  dog  the  Maid  seemed  to  think  a  great 
deal  of  it.  They  were  a  great  family,  that  old  mare.  Old 
Charlie  and  the  dog,  apijarently  interested  in  nothing  else 
in  the  world  but  themselves  and  getting  along  together  as 
well  as  you  could  wish.  When  it  was  bedtime  Charlie 
would  lie  down  on  his  cot  in  one  corner  of  the  stall,  his  pil- 
low being  a  bag  containing  the  mare's  morning  feed  of  oats. 
The  Maid  would  ensconse  herself  in  another  corner  and 
somewhere  else  in  the  stall  the  dog  would  stretch  herself 
out.  About  live  o'clock  in  the  morning  the  Maid  would 
get  a  little  restless  and  hungry.  She  knew  well  enough 
where  the  oats  were  and  would  come  over  to  where  Charlie 
lay  sleeping  and  stick  her  nose  under  his  head  and  in  this 
manner  wake  him  and  give  notice  that  she  wanted  to  be 
fed.     I  never  saw  any  other  horse  that  displayed  half  her 


LIFE    ^\  ITH   THE  TEOTTEES.  417 

intelligence  on  so  many  points,  and  I  doubt  if  for 
many  years  there  will  be  another  one  before  the  public  with 
the  same  amount  of  brains  and  the  ability  to  emj)loy  them 
that  Goldsmith  Maid  had.  How  I  trotted  her  all  over  the 
country,  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific,  was  told  at  length 
in  the  daily  papers  and  turf  journals  of  those  days.  She 
was  in  my  stable  continuously  from  1S66  until  the  summer 
of  1877,  at  which  time  she  was  in  her  twenty-first  year. 

The  previous  season,  that  of  1876,  there  was  no  purse 
offered  through  the  central  circuit  for  an  exhibition  of 
speed  by  her  and  I  was  forced  to  trot  her  in  the  free- to-all 
race.  For  a  number  of  years  previous  to  this  she  had  not 
taken  part  in  races  against  other  horses,  and  the  result  was 
that  I  had  trained  her  simply  for  a  mile  dash,  so  to  speak, 
once  a  week  at  her  best  rate  of  speed,  generally  going  the 
other  two  heats  in  the  exhibition  in  a  manner  that 
did  not  fully  extend  her  in  any  part  of  the  mile. 
After  several  successive  seasons  in  this  sort  of  training 
and  racing  it  was  very  evident  that,  especially  in  the 
case  of  so  old  a  mare,  she  could  not  at  once  return  to  the 
old-style  system  of  racing,  particularly  against  a  field  of 
horses  all  of  whom  made  her  the  target,  and  expect  to  beat 
them  easily.  It  was  this  fact  more  than  anything  else  that 
contributed  to  her  defeat  at  Cleveland  in  1876  by  the  stal- 
lion Smuggler.  Lucille  Grolddust,  Judge  Fullerton,  and 
Bodine  were  also  in  the  race  and  after  the  Maid  had  won 
the  first  two  heats  in  2:15^,  2:17^,  the  stallion  beat  her  in 
2:1 6J,  2:19|,  and  2:17^,  but  after  that  he  was  never  able  to 
defeat  her,  although  they  trotted  clear  through  the  circuit 
together,  winding  up  at  Hartford  with  the  famous  six-heat 
race  in  which  the  average  of  the  half-dozen  miles  trotted 
that  afternoon  was  2:17^.  It  was  wonderful  to  see  a  mare 
twenty  years  old  going  this  sort  of  a  race,  and  it  should  be 
remembered  that  in  addition  to  this  she  had  been  winning 
all  the  way  down  the  line,  having  trotted  at  Buffalo  in  2:16, 
2:15|,  2:15  ;  at  »Utica  three  heats  better  than  2:19,  and  at 
Poughkeepsie  three  heats  that  averaged  2:18.    She  trotted 


418  LIFE   WITH   THE   TROTTERS. 

a  lot  of  other  races  that  summer  and  fall,  went  to  Califor- 
nia with  me  in  the  winter,  and  came  across  the  continent 
again  in  the  spring  of  1877.  At  tliis  time  she  had  as  much 
speed  as  ever,  having  shown  this  by  her  mile  over  the  track 
in  Chico,  Cal.,  in  2:14^  in  May  of  that  year.  After 
getting  East  I  trotted  her  at  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  and  Spring- 
field, Mass.,  going  from  there  to  Chicago,  where  she  went 
a  couple  of  exhibition  heats  on  the  20th  of  July.  Then  we 
shij^ped  to  Rochester  and  trotted  an  exhibition,  doing  the 
second  mile  in  2:16|.  Two  weeks  later  we  w^erf^  at  Cynthi- 
ana,  Ky.,  where  the  mare  went  a  mile  in  2:21.  At  Kansas 
City,  Mo.,  the  following  week  over  a  half-mile  track  she 
trotted  in  2:20 J,  and  was  from  there  shipped  to  Toledo, 
Ohio,  where  over  another  half-mile  track  she  went  three 
heats  in  2:23^,  2:21^,  2:22.  I  saw  by  this  time  that  it  was 
best  to  retire  her,  Avhich  Avas  accordingly  done,  and  she  was 
sent  to  the  farm  of  her  owner,  Mr.  H.  N.  Smith,  at 
Trenton,  N.  J. 

Of  course  when  the  Maid  left  the  turf  it  necessitated  a  dis- 
solution of  the  partnership  between  herself  and  Old  Charlie, 
who  had  been  her  companion  and  groom  for  so  many  years, 
and  I  am  sure  that  both  of  them  were  very  sorry  when  the 
day  came.  I  have  told  how  intelligent  Goldsmith  Maid  was 
and  how  much  she  thought  of  Old  Charlie.  Both  of  these 
traits  of  her  character  were  well  illustrated  two  years  after 
she  had  quit  trotting.  By  this  time  she  had  by  her  side  at 
the  Fashion  farm  a  fine  colt,  and  was  very  cross  when  any 
one  came  near  her — in  fact  inclined  to  be  vicious — and  as 
she  was  always  a  willful  mare  when  her  temper  was  aroused, 
the  attendants  at  the  farm  kept  a  respectful  distance  from 
her.  About  this  time  Old  Charlie  was  in  the  East  and  went 
down  to  Trenton  to  see  the  Maid-and  her  colt.  The  boys  at 
the  farm  told  him  that  she  was  very  vicious  and  that  it  was 
not  safe  to  go  near  her,  but  Charlie  only  smiled  and  told 
them  to  watch  him.  He  went  to  a  point  near  where  the 
mare  stood  and  placing  himself  in  a  position  where  she  could 
not  possibly  see  him,  he  began  calling  her,  using  the  name 


LIFE   W ITK  THE  TROTTERS.  419 

of  "Mamie/'    by   whicli   she   was   always   known  in  the 
stable. 

The  change  that  came  over  the  Maid  when  she  heard  the 
familiar  voice  was  an  astonishing  one.  She  whinnied  with 
delight  and  began  pacing  restlessly  np  and  down  to  discover 
where  Old  Charlie  was.  When  he  came  in  sight  she  ran  up 
to  him  and  was  just  as  pleased  to  meet  him  as  one  human 
being  w^ho  had  a  strong  affection  for  another  would  have 
been.  She  was  not  only  not  at  all  cross,  but  seemed  to  call 
his  attention  to  her  colt  and  when  he  went  away  the  old 
mare  stood  in  the  paddock  and  looked  after  him  with  as 
much  sorrow  in  her  eyes  as  could  be  imagined.  After  he 
had  gone  a  distance  she  seemed  to  think  that  j)erhaps  he 
was  going  to  leave  her  for  good,  and  so  after  a  moment's 
hesitation  the  old  mare  started  after  him,  leaving  her  colt 
behind,  and  it  was  only  when  she  was  caught  and  haltered 
that  she  would  return. 

It  is  my  intention  to  at  some  future  time  describe  in  de- 
tail the  experiences  that  have  come  from  a  career  of  more 
than  a  quarter  of  a  century  on  the  trotting  turf.  At  that 
time  I  shall  write,  not  only  about  Goldsmith  Maid  and  Dex- 
ter, but  also  have  much  to  say  concerning  the  many  other 
horses  trained  and  driven  by  me,  and  in  that  connection  to 
give  at  length  my  views  on  the  subject  of  how  trotters  should 
be  trained  and  driven,  as  well  as  to  recount  the  various  inci- 
dents of  interest  and  value  to  horsemen  and  the  general 
public  that  have  come  under  my  observation.  When  the 
time  for  this  shall  arrive  the  book  will  in  all  probability  be 
published  and  edited  by  Mr.  H.  T.  White,  the  editor  of  this 
volume. 


Chicago,  January  21,  1889. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

The  education  of  trotting-bred  colts — Early  development,  and  the  reasons  there- 
for— Fast  youngsters  the  ones  that  sell  well — Colt  handling  now  a  distinct 
branch  of  the  trainer's  art — The  man  who  handles  a  colt  must  learn  to  con- 
trol his  temper — Hints  about  the  best  time  to  have  foals  dropped — Treat- 
ment of  the  mare  at  this  season — Teach  the  suckling  colt  that  man  is  a 
friend,  not  an  enemy — The  story  of  a  veterinarian,  and  what  one  experience 
taught  Dunbar — Putting  on  the  halter — Handle  the  colt  frequently,  but  do 
not  lead  him  much — How  to  put  mares  and  their  foals  in  afield — Accidents 
on  a  stock  farm  generally  due  to  carelessness — Management  of  the  mare 
and  foal  in  the  stable — Turning  out  the  youngsters  during  their  first  sum- 
mer— Preparations  for  weaning  time  that  will  be  found  very  valuable — 
Looking  after  the  appetites  of  the  colts  when  they  have  been  weaned — 
When  the  work  of  leading  colts  alongside  of  a  horse  should  begin — The 
proper  method  of  doing  this  explained  in  detail — A  straight,  covered  track 
better  than  a  circular  one — Colts  differ  as  much  in  disposition,  etc.,  as 
matured  horses,  and  must  be  treated  accordingly — No  absolute  rule  by 
,  which  to  train  can  be  laid  down. 

"  As  the  twig  is  bent  the  tree  inclines  " 

This  very  trite  saying  is  applicable  to  the  title  of  this 
chapter. 

The  rearing,  breaking  and  training  of  the  trotting-bred 
youngsters  is  a  subject  which  opens  up  a  wide  field  for 
thought  and  discussion ;  and  the  future  pleasure  or  profit  front 
them  depends  very  much  upon  how  well  they  are  reared  and 
handled  in  their  young  days.  It  has  become  a  fact  at  this 
stage  of  our  progress  in  the  development  of  the  American 
trotter,  that  he  must  not  only  trot  young,  fast  and  steadily, 
but  stay  the  route  as  well,  to  warrant  the  l^reeder  a  safe  and 
profitable  investment  for  his  capital  and  labor.  A  tendency 
to  the  early  development  of  speed  has  caught  the  masses, 
has  become  fashionable,  and  no  doubt  has  come  to  stay, 

(420) 


LIFE    WITH    THE   TROTTERS.  421 

although  it  remains  to  be  seen  if  the  early-developed  and 
speed-forced  colt  will  j^rove  the  better  horse. 

With  such  bright  stars  before  us  as  Patron,  two-year-old 
record  2:42|,  three- year-old  record  2:19|,  five-year-old  record 
2:14^,  and  this  made  after  a  season  in  the  stud,  there  is  a 
grand  argument  for  the  advocates  of  early  training.  I  will 
speak  of  another  which  has  attracted  my  attention  a  good 
deal,  and  that  is  Bermuda,  yearling  exhibition  2:39f, 
two-year-old  record  2:29f,  three-year-old  record  2:24|,  four- 
year-old  record  2:22,  and  five-year-old  record  2:20^. 

There  are  other  matters  of  importance  to  think  of,  one 
of  which  is  this:  If  it  is  possible  to  raise  horses  as  well 
develox)ed  in  speed  at  five  years  old,  and  that  will  stand  the 
campaign  and  fight  out  long,  closely  contested  races  (as 
Jack  and  Geneva  S.  have  done),  will  it  not  be  more  of  an 
incentive  for  men  looking  for  a  place  to  enjoy  their  surplus 
capital  to  invest  where  they  will  get  such  sj^eedy  returns 
and  not  have  to  wait  eight  or  ten  years,  or  until  changes  in 
business  or  tastes  force  them  to  deny  themselves  the  jirivi- 
\ege1  The  best  time  to  catch  fish  is  when  they  bite  well; 
then  with  a  tempting  bait  throw  your  hook.  Show  a  buyer 
(wliether  he  be  breeder  or  speculator)  a  fast  young  one,  and 
he  will  pay  more,  and  buy  much  quicker,  than  for  one  as 
well  bred  that  does  not  jDerform  as  well.  How  to  do  this  is 
the  theme  which  engrosses  the  mind  of  the  breeder  of  trot- 
ting horses.  The  breeder  who  does  not  believe  in  early 
speed  development,  and  practice  it,  will  in  time  sink  out  of 
sight,  just  as  surely  as  railways  have  superseded  stage 
coaches.  His  capital  may  enable  him  to  bear  the  expense 
and  to  sell  at  a  low  figure,  until  such  time  as  the  colts  are 
develoi)ed  by  other  peox)le  and  demonstrate  their  ability  to 
trot  young,  or  a  breeder  may  be  so  well  stocked  in  speed - 
producing,  fashionable  strains,  that  the  current  may  carry 
him  along  with  it,  but  in  the  nature  of  things  the  boom  will 
change.  "Eternal  vigilance  is  the  price  of  liberty.'''  Colt 
raising,  as  well  as  handling,  has  become  an  ai  t  of  its  own, 
and  apart  from  the  training  and  handling  of  aged  horses. 


422  LiFK  WITH  THE  TK()rTi:Rs. 

There  are  personally  known  to  me  several  noted  drivers,  who 
have  no  taste,  deske  or  x)ride  to  handle  a  youngster.  They 
can  not  bear  with  them,  and  have  no  conlidence  they  Avill  not 
cut  up  a  "  dido ' '  at  any  time.  It  can  be  safely  set  down  as 
a  rule  that  holds  good  in  any  land  or  clime,  or  under  any 
circumstances,  "  to  do  a  thing  well  and  succeed  in  it,''  one 
must  have  a  desire  and  interest  to  accomplish  the  object  in 
view. 

Anyone  who  can  not  control  his  temper  should  never  be 
allowed  to  have  anything  to  do  with  a  colt.  I  do  not  mean 
by  this  only  the  groom,  but  the  driver-as  well.  Never  allow 
either  of  them  to  have  charge  of  animals  they  will  not  devote 
their  time  and  attention  to.  The  groouLand  assistants  should 
be  Avatched  closely,  and  when  there  are  any  indications  that 
they  are  petulant  and  cross,  do  not  like  their  calling,  and  do 
not  become  devoted  to  and  i)roud  of  the  animals  under  their 
charge,  their  services  should  at  once  be  dispensed  with. 

It  is  an  object  to  have  the  foals  come  as  early  as  possible 
in  the  spring,  always  being  governed  by  the  climate  where 
you  reside.  The  foals  in  this  latitude  are  generally  dropped 
from  the  middle  of  April  to  June  1  and  earlier  than  this 
is  not  considered  to  be  to  their  advantage.  At  that  time  the 
young  and  tender  grasses  give  the  dams  plenty  of  milk 
and  are  soon  learned  to  be  cropped  by  the  foal.  In  this 
way  a  good  start  in  life  is  effected,  which  is  of  great  benefit, 
for  if  the  foal  is  stinted  and  does  not  thrive  the  chance  for 
early  speed  is  lost.  An  unthrifty,  weak  colt  will  not  make 
a  fast  yearling,  and  the  breeder  needs  wait  another  year  to 
get  a  smaller  price  for  his  two-year-old,  than  his  promising 
yearling,  which  had  lost  its  chance  by  mismanagement. 
Two  weeks  before  the  mare  is  supposed  to  be  due  to  foal, 
have  the  man  in  charge  keep  a  watchful  eye  on  her,  and  as 
the  time  draws  near  he  must  visit  her  often  to  assist  in  the 
event  of  any  mishap  or  to  help  the  foal  nurse  in  case  it 
comes  weak  or  the  mare  is  cross  and  mean.  In  this  way  the 
mare  and  foal  become  attached  to  the  man  and  you  begin 
to  impress  the  colt  from  its  earliest  life  that  man  is  his 


LIFE    WITH   THE  TROTTERS.  423 

fiiend,  and  the  foundation  of  his  education  is  laid.  During 
the  first  few  days  in  the  life  of  foals  much  depends  upon 
strict  attention  to  their  bowels,  as  they  are  apt  to  become 
stopped,  and  in  this  event  an  injection  of  soap  and  warm 
water  invariably  has  the  required  effect,  and  the  first  danger 
is  i)ast.  I  had  a  little  experience  in  an  early  day,  which  is 
not  forgotten.  A  mare  which  I  prized  highly  dropj)ed  a 
fine  large  colt,  and  in  a  few  days  after  it  was  foaled  it  seemed 
in  distress.  I  started  post  haste  for  a  full-fledged  veteri- 
narian, not  wanting  to  leave  anything  undone  to  save  the 
foal.  We  hurried  back  as  soon  as  possible,  the  veterinarian 
felt  of  its  pulse,  he  i)ut  his  ear  to  its  side,  then  went  on  with 
a  long  lingo  about  its  internal  structure,  and  the  obstruction 
of  its  abdominal  channel,  and  commenced  asking  me  if  it 
had  ]3assed  the  meconium^  This  was  a  new  one  to  me,  and 
before  I  recovered  from  the  shock  the  poor  little  colt  was 
out  of  his  misery.  I  felt  the  loss  deeply,  buried  my  first 
venture  in  trotting  stock,  paid  the  bill,  and  have  used  soap 
and  water  since. 

When  the  colt  is  about  ten  days  old,  put  on  an  easy- 
fitting  halter,  being  careful  to  have  it  fit  just  right,  and  let 
him  wear  it  until  you  turn  out  to  pasture  for  the  summer. 
It  is  handy  to  have  it  on  to  manage  him.  It  may  be  neces- 
sary to  look  at  his  feet,  which  ought  to  be  handled  often, 
the  attendant  holding  him  by  the  head,  but  not  forcing  him 
to  lead  much,  as  at  this  age  we  think  it  too  early  to  trouble 
them.  What  we  most  desire  at  this  time  is  thrift  and  pros- 
perity. When  the  season  has  advanced  enough  to  turn  the 
foals  out,  take  one  mare  and  foal  to  the  field  at  a  time  and 
let  them  loose,  and  they  will  soon  have  tbeir  play  out;  then 
another,  and  so  on  until  you  get  out  as  many  as  you  desire. 
In  this  way  you  will  avoid  having  the  mares  fretting  and 
kicking  one  another,  and  lessen  the  chance  of  an  accident. 
Let  me  say  right  here  that  the  majority  of  accidents  on  a 
stock  farm  can  be  traced  directly  to  mismanagement  and 
carelessness.  The  first  week  or  two,  when  night  comes,  the 
mare  and  foal  are  taken  up  and  put  in  a  box-stall,  well 


424  LIFE   WITH   THE   TROTTERS. 

littered  down,  which  is  kept  as  sweet  and  clean  as  possible, 
with  plenty  of  ventilation  without  direct  draft,  and  the  mare 
liberally  fed,  having  the  feed-box  low  enough  for  the  colt 
to  muss  with  the  feed,  and  watch  its  mother  eat.  After  the 
weather  has  become  settled  and  warm  enough  to  leave  them 
out  nights,  take  the  halters  from  the  foals  and  let  them  go. 
Experience  has  taught  me  that  halters  left  on  will  some- 
times get  caught  in  the  iDasture,  and  often  colts  will  get  to 
chewing  each  other  s  halter,  and  it  is  better  to  have  them  oft'. 
I  can  think  of  no  advantage  gained  by  leaving  them  on,  for 
if  the  colt  needs  attention  the  proper  way  is  to  lead  the  mare 
to  her  stall,  where  it  can  be  attended  to  better  and  more 
safely  than  in  pasture. 

With  the  colts  all  out  to  grass  and  doing  well  it  is  time 
to  separate  the  oldest  of  them  from  the  younger  and  com- 
mence feeding  them  grain,  which  is  done  in  this  way: 
Build  a  pen  in  some  suitable  place  which  is  the  most  conven- 
ient, maldng  it  high  enough  so  the  mare  will  not  try  to 
jump  it  and  have  the  space  from  the  ground  to  the  bot- 
tom rail  or  board  sufficient  to  allow  the  foal  to  pass 
under.  Put  in  a  handy  gate  or  bars,  then  an  ample  feed 
trough.  Lead  your  mares  and  foals  singly  into  this  inclo- 
sure  and  let  them  eat  together  two  or  three  times  and  they 
will  soon  learn  where  the  food  is.  Take  out  the  mares,  shut 
up  the  gate,  leave  the  colts  in,  keep  a  good  supply  of  oats 
there,  and  you  will  lind  the  foals  there  regularly  running 
in  and  out  getting  their  rations.  To  induce  the  dam  to 
loiter  about  this  place  keep  a  large  lump  of  rock  salt  near 
it  and  occasionally  a  mess  of  oats,  and  there  is  no  further 
trouble.  In  this  way  at  weaning  time,  which  is  at  the  age 
of  five  months,  the  colts  have  learned  to  eat  and  the  result 
is  that  when  they  are  taken  away  from  their  dams  they  do 
not  miss  them  so  much,  nor  does  it  stop  their  grooving.  Now 
we  put  on  the  halters  and  keep  them  on,  leading  the  foals 
more  or  less  while  weaning  them.  Leave  them  in  their 
boxes,  two  or  three  together,  several  days,  and  have  the 
boxes  open  into  a  nice  grass  paddock.     Let  them  run  oat 


LIFE   WITH   THE  TROTTERS.  425 

and  in,  give  them  oats  mixed  with  bran  and  sorghum  cut 
up  fine,  and  in  a  few  days  more  turn  them  out  in  fields  away 
from  the  dams,  where  there  is  j)lenty  of  grass  and  water, 
and  a  large  trough  with  feed  in  it  constantly.  They  have 
been  in  the  habit  of  taking  milk  a  great  many  times  a  day, 
and  they  need  food  just  as  often.  The  best  way  is  to  keep 
plenty  of  mixed  food  for  them,  using  cracked  corn  and  oats 
also  unthrashed  oats  run  through  a  cutting-box,  then  mixed 
with  bran  and  water  enough  to  moisten  it  to  make  the  bran 
adhere  to  the  oats.  As  the  nights  get  cold  take  tlie  foals  in 
and  shelter  them  from  all  cold  storms.  They  can  not  get 
too  much  exercise  or  be  out  too  early,  and  it  is  well  to  leave 
them  out  as  late  as  possible.  Lead  them  to  and  from  pas- 
ture regularly  and  if  not  too  far  one  at  a  time  to  keep  the 
man  in  charge  from  letting  two  or  three  hitched  together 
(as  is  often  done),  jam  each  other  going  through  gates  and 
into  stalls.  Handle  their  legs  and  feet  a  good  deal,  and  in 
this  way  they  are  gradually  receiving  an  important  part  of 
their  education. 

On  the  first  of  January  we  are  done  with  the  weanlings; 
they  have  now  become  yearlings  although  but  about  eight 
months  old.  It  is  now  time  to  commence  leading  them 
beside  a  horse.  We  have  a  covered  track  something  over 
one  hundred  yards  long,  jDerfectly  smooth  and  covered  with 
tan-bark,  which  in  my  opinion  is  better  than  a  ring,  as  it 
makes  all  straight  work  and  no  chance  to  speed  aiound  a 
turn,  which  must  necessarily  be  sharp  if  under  any  ordinary 
cover.  Beside  this,  on  a  straight  track,  you  have  to  come 
to  a  walk  at  each  end,  and  there  is  but  little  danger  of  over 
working.  Now  that  we  are  to  commen(  e  our  leading  beside 
a  horse,  the  halter  breaking  (which  has  been  gradually 
going  on  until  the  present  time)  finds  our  colts  thoroughly 
accomplished  in  this,  and  ready  for  the  next  lesson.  Put 
a  small  open  bridle  on  them,  using  a  perfect-fitting  snafHe  bit, 
but  do  not  lead  from  the  bit  but  from  the  halter,  as  one  of  the 
most  important  things  for  a  trotter  to  have  is  a  good  mouth. 
There  is  no  trouble  in  restraining  or  handling  a  colt  by  the 


426  LIPE   WITH   THE   TROTTERS. 

halter.  If  you  have  the  lines  attached  to  the  bit,  and  the 
cx)lt  gets  frightened  and  plunges  ahead,  of  course  he  will 
receive  the  whole  pull  upon  his  tender  mouth,  and  not  only 
teach  him  bad  habits,  but  probably  sore  his  mouth  so  he 
will  not  eat  well.  The  consequence  is  you  are  doing  more 
harm  than  good.  I  am  anxious  to  impress  upon  the  novice, 
if  possible,  the  great  importance  of  doing  these  things  well 
and  so  kindly  that  the  colt  will  get  no  set-back,  nothing  to 
trouble  or  interfere  with  his  growing. 

If  this  leading  and  training  can  not  be  accomplished 
without  harassing  and  bothering  the  colt,  your  time  is  worse 
than  lost,  and  it  is  much  better  to  let  the  colts  alone.  The 
attendant  brings  the  colt  out,  leads  him  uj)  to  the  off  side 
of  the  horse,  lets  him  smell  of  the  horse,  saddle  and  rider, 
and  size  them  up;  he  then  hands  the  halter  stale  to  the 
rider  with  the  lines  hanging  over  the  colt's  neck;  the  man 
steps  back,  the  rider  starts  up,  the  man  follows  along 
behind  the  colt  for  a  few  rods,  the  colt  finds  nothing  to  hurt 
him,  and  in  his  first  lesson,  which  should  not  exceed  thirty 
minutes,  he  is  broken  to  lead  beside  a  horse.  In  two  or 
three  days  he  will  lead  up  and  down  before  a  crowd  of 
people  as  proud  now  as  he  will  be  when  he  goes  in  2:20. 
Judgment  nuist  be  used  as  to  how  much  or  little  exercise 
in  the  way  of  leading,  a  colt  needs.  Like  horses  in  train- 
ing, one  will  require  much  more  than  another;  some  will 
thrive  and  grow,  while  others  will  fall  away  on  the  same 
amount  of  Avork.  No  absolute  rule  can  be  laid  down  to  train 
by.  Be  governed  by  the  condition  of  the  animal  trained. 
Do  not  do  enough  of  it  to  stop  their  growing;  they  very 
soon  learn  to  enjoy  it,  and  with  us,  they  commence  to  im- 
prove in  looks,  and  seem  to  take  a  new  start. 

After  the  colt  becomes  accustomed  to  leading,  put  on  a 
surcingle  Avitli  the  back-strap  taken  up  short  enough  to 
keep  the  girth  from  dialing  his  fore  legs.  Have  side-straps 
that  buckle  into  the  surcingle  about  half  way  down  on  the 
side  and  snaps  to  attach  them  to  the  bridle,  being  sure  the 
side- straps  are  long  enough  to   not  hamper  the  colt  too 


LIFE    WITH   THE  TROTTERS.  427 

much.  CTieck  liiin  up  lightly  and  in  this  way  yon  are  be- 
ginning to  make  a  mouth,  as  well  as  teaching  the  colt  to 
keep  his  head  straight  while  leading,  and  in  training  to 
move  his  body  as  w^ell  as  neck.  Do  not  forget  that  we  are 
still  leading  the  colt  from  the  halter  and  not  from  the 
bridle.  As  the  colt  progresses  the  side  reins  and  check  can 
be  taken  up,  but  of  all  things  avoid  being  severe.  It  is  not 
necessary  to  get  the  colt  mad  or  sour.  Our  object  is  to  have 
the  colt  become  accustomed  to  the  crupx)er,  surcingle,  and 
bit  as  easily  and  gradually  as  he  was  halter-broken.  Some 
colts  are  more  timid  than  others  about  staying  up  even 
with  or  abreast  of  the  riding  horse  and  will  often  stop 
suddenly.  In  this  case  I  use  a  small  rope,  one  end  being- 
fastened  to  the  ring  of  the  girth,  on  the  opposite  side  of  the 
colt  from  which  you  are  leading  him,  running  back  behind 
him  and  about  as  low  down  as  the  breeching  of  a  harness 
comes,  and  kept  from  falling  any  lower  by  a  small  strap, 
which  is  kept  in  its  place  like  a  hip-strap  to  a  douljle  har- 
ness with  loops  on  each  end  of  the  strap,  and  the  rope 
running  through  these  loops  to  the  leader's  hand.  A 
sudden  pull  upon  the  rope  acts  like  magic  to  keep  the  colt 
to  his  place  and  does  not  need  to  be  used  but  a  few  times, 
for  the  horse  family  nevei-  forgets  anything.  Their  greatest 
stock  in  trade  is  memory. 

The  colt  having  been  led  long  enough  to  thoroughly 
understand  it,  do  not  jog  him  till  tired.  Give  him  quick, 
active  work,  spurting  him  and  encouraging  him  to  do  his 
best,  always  being  ready  to  correct  him  by  voice  and  line  if 
he  makes  a  mistake,  and  the  natural  result  is  that  he  soon 
learns  that  the  proper  thing  to  do  is  to  trot  and  not  run. 
When  the  thoroughbred  runner  is  bred  so  fine  that  he  never 
trots,  fifty  years  from  that  date  I  look  to  see  the  trotter 
never  run  or  gallop,  and  if  he  loses  his  balance  in  any  way 
he  will  have  to  fall  and  probably  break  his  neck.  It  is 
necessary  to  have  tips  or  light  shoes  X)ut  on  soon  after  the 
leading  commences,  so  as  to  use  scalpers  and  protect  them 
from  speedy  cutting.     It  is  well  to  use  a  light  quarter  boot 

28 


428  ]A¥K   WITH   THE   TROTTERS. 

for  fear  of  an  accident.  Ani^Dle  protection  must  be  afforded 
the  colts  wherever  needed,  or  they  will  lose  confidence  in 
themselves.  Avoid  any  boots  or  girths  or,  in  fact,  any 
harness  that  chafes.  Follow  the  above  hints  to  the  letter 
and  the  colts  will  not  fail  to  improve  and  please  you  for  the 
pains  taken. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

The  training  of  colts  gone  into  in  detail — How  the  breaking  harness  should  be 
put  on  and  made  use  of — Proper  adjustment  of  the  lines  an  important  feat- 
ure— Teaching  the  pupil  to  obey  the  word  of  command — The  first  hitch 
to  the  breaking  cart — Don't  have  visitors  around  at  this  time — Preparing 
for  the  stakes  in  which  the  young  trotters  are  entered — Accustom  the  colt 
to  other  horses,  and  then  speed  him  a  little — Keep  your  own  counsel  as  to 
•  what  is  being  done — Don't  be  alarmed  at  what  you  read  concerning  other 
people's  colts — June  a  good  month  in  which  to  test  your  material  a  little — 
The  prompting  horse  should  not  be  allowed  to  beat  the  pupil  or  carry  him 
too  fast — Keep  a  reco!  d  of  what  each  animal  does  and  how  he  does  it — No 
two  colts  can  be  trained  exactly  alike — The  first  trial  of  the  most  promising 
youngsters— A  surprise  often  in  store  for  the  trainer  at  this  time — Driving 
on  the  road  occasionally  a  good  plan — The  earnest  work  to  be  done  in  August 
— Shipping  the  colts  to  the  place  where  they  are  to  trot — What  to  do  when 
you  reach  the  track — All  ready  for  the  first  race  with  the  young  trotter. 

The  colt  has  now  been  led  and  driven  about  in  the  lead- 
ing shed  for  about  three  months  and  is  ready  to  be  driven 
with  harness  on.  Put  on  your  regular  breaking  harness 
complete,  tie  the  tugs  or  traces  into  the  breeching,  fasten 
the  outside  girth  into  the  thill  or  shaft  holders,  run  the  lines 
through  the  sliaft  holders  or  lugs,  using  a  long  pair,  so  the 
driver  will  not  be  too  near  the  colt. 

Drive  him  about  the  place,  always  carrying  a  whip. 
Teach  him  to  guide  and  drive  wherever  you  wish  ;  drive 
him  forward  and  back  past  objects  that  he  is  shy  of.  Avoid 
letting  him  turn  around  to  face  you,  which  he  can  not  very 
well  do  with  ilie  driving  lines  run  through  the  shaft  holders, 
or  if  they  come  directly  from  the  bit  to  your  hand.  If  the 
lines  arc  put  through  the  turrets  of  the  harness  he  can  turn 
around  at  any  time,  as  you  can  get  no  purchase  on  him  siu*h 
as  you  have  when  the  lines  run  along  by  his  side.     Drive 

(429) 


430  LIFE   WITH   THE  TROTTERS. 

him  in  this  way  until  he  will  guide  to  suit  you,  stop  at  the 
command  "Whoa/'  start  when  told,  and  back  up  at  the 
word.  Be  sure  he  will  turn  or  guide  freely  in  all  directions. 
To  teach  a  colt  this  may  take  one  day  or  one  week,  accord- 
ing to  his  attention  to  business,  but  when  you  commence  a 
lesson  keep  at  it  until  he  learns  it. 

When  this  preliminary  work  is  done  properly  the  colt  is 
ready  to  hitch  to  the  breaking  cart,  with  but  little  fear  of 
his  doing  anything  wrong.  If  the  frost  is  out  of  the  ground 
and  you  are  ready  to  commence  driving  him  have  the  break- 
ing cart  drawn  out  into  some  large  open  space  or  field  of  at 
least  three  or  foui'  acres.  Have  your  breaking  harness  good 
and  stout,  with  a  kick-strap  attached.  Drive  the  colt  out 
to  the  field,  let  him  see  the  cart,  pull  it  around  behind  him 
and  about  him  for  a  few  moments,  then  let  the  assistant  hold 
him  by  the  head  Avliile  he  is  being  hitched  to  it,  and  never 
have  more  than  two  men  with  you.  Get  on  the  seat,  let  the 
men  lead  the  colt  for  a  few  rods,  then  step  to  one  side  and 
let  him  go. 

If  he  wants  to  indulge  in  a  few  jumps  do  not  pull  and 
saw  away  on  his  mouth  and  tear  it  lo  pieces.  Let  him  go  ; 
he  will  not  do  any  harm,  and  will  soon  settle  down  and  jog 
or  walk  around  as  you  desire,  and  in  thirty  minutes  you 
can  drive  out  and  around  the  track,  then  to  the  stable  all 
right ;  being  very  careful  in  unhitching  him  not  to  let  him 
get  frightened.  Repeat  the  same  thing  daily,  hitching  up 
out  in  the  field  for  several  days,  until  you  have  perfect  con- 
fidence in  him,  finishing  your  drive  on  the  track  or  road. 
I  first  break  colts  with  a  blind  bridle  on  and  finish  up  the 
job  with  an  open  bridle.  Be  very  particular  not  to  check 
the  colt  up  at  all  until  he  is  thoroughly  broken,  as  it  only 
serves  to  make  him  mad.  Do  not  have  a  lot  of  fellows  about 
to  see  the  colt  handled  ;  it  is  apt  to  make  trouble  and  bother. 
A  man  wants  his  whole  attention  strictly  on  what  he  is  doing 
and  can  not  be  entertaining  visitors.  It  is  not  necessary  to 
have  a  great  heavy  break  cart,  nor  is  it  best  to  have  anyone 
in  with  you.     Remember  you  are  only  breaking  a  yearling, 


LIFE   WITH   THE  TROTTEES.  431 

not  an  old  horse.  Get  the  colt  into  a  small  cart  or  sulky  as 
soon  as  safe  to  do  so  and  do  not  let  nj)  on  his  work  until  he 
drives  perfectly  kind  and  gentle. 

The  colt  is  now  about  a  year  old  ;  has  been  well  raised 
and  well  broken;  was  entered  in  the  ''Maturity  Stakes," 
"Grand  National,"  and  the  ''State  -Breeders',"  and  must 
start  in  August,  to  maintain  the  reputation  and  prestige  oi 
the  farm,  as  well  as  to  get  back  the  money  laid  out  for 
development  and  entrance.  Besides  all  this  there  is  a  great 
deal  of  pride  at  stake.  There  have  been  many  arguments 
pro  and  con  about  the  various  strains  of  blood,  the  differ- 
ent methods  of  handling,  and  the  races  of 'years  past  have 
been  brought  up  and  discussed,  in  which  one  colt's  grand- 
dam  had  beaten  the  other,  and  the  talk  has  finally  wound 
up  with  the  invincible  argument,  "  Blood  will  tell."  The 
stimidation  of  the  argument  is  beginning  to  act,  and  as  the 
colt  has  had  a  nice  run  at  grass  through  AjDril,  he  must  be 
taken  up  and  conmienced  with.  He  showed  splendidly  in 
leading,  acted  well  when  broken,  but  no  one  has  held  the 
watch  on  him  yet,  andv  as  he  has  been  running  out  the  last 
month,  those  fast  starts  and  sudden  rushes  he  would  make 
to  beat,  the  pony  while  leading,  are  sort  of  forgotten.  And 
then  perhaps  he  wont  like  the  track  as  well  as  the  leading- 
shed,  Mud  possibly  he  may  get  lame.  All  these  things  will 
begin  to  arise  and  here  is  where  tlie  trouble  comes.  If  you 
are  not  careful  you  will  get  in  too  big  a  hurry.  Keep  quiet, 
go  slow,  take  the  colt  up,  put  on  his  light  shoes,  drive  him 
around  some  before  hitching  him  up,  then  hitch  to  the 
break-cart  first,  go  around  the  ti-ack  slowly  and  carefully  ; 
it  will  look  differently  to  him  now  the  leaves  are  out. 

Get  the  colt  accustomed  to  the  changes  and  to  having 
horses  meet  and  pass  him  ;  jog  him  slowly  for  a  few  days, 
and  you  will  be  ready  to  let  him  go  along  some.  Be  sure 
yon  have  the  proper  boots  on,  such  as  scalpei-s  and  quarter 
boots,  and  the  girth  well  back  so  as  not  to  chafe  him  where 
the  forward  legs  work  back  and  forth.  L(!t  him  spurt  in 
places,  about  forty  rods   at  a  time,  turning  him   around 


432  LIFE   WITH   THE  TKOTTERS, 

often,  giving  liim  sharp,  quick  work  and  not  too  much  of 
it.  Take  Just  as  good  care  of  him  as  any  trotter  that  can 
beat  2:30.  If  he  is  warm  walk  him  out  slowly,  have  his 
legs  bandaged,  and  if  he  is  very  heavy  coated,  have  him 
clipi^ed.  In  the  afternoon  give  him  an  hour  s  run  in  the 
grass  paddock,  or  if  it  is  not  convenient  to  do  this  have 
him  led  out  at  grass  with  a  short  evening  walk. 

Keep  this  up  for  a  month,  and  don't  let  anyone  know 
how  fast  he  is  going,  not  even  the  grooms  about  the  stable, 
and  there  will  be  an  air  of  mysteriousness  about  it  that  will 
astonish  the  natives.  The  nods  and  sly  winks  will  be  many. 
Privately  XJerhaps  you  may  think  the  colt  is  not  as  promising 
as  you  at  first  imagined,  and  you  really  do  not  like  to  tell  that 
he  could  only  go  a  quarter  in  fifty-five  seconds,  when  you 
have  been  talking  about  a  two-forty  gait  all  winter,  and 
telling  that  the  leading  horse  could  not  run  fast  enough  to 
keei^  up  with  him.  Well,  you  are  excusable  ;  there  is  no 
telling  what  may  be  said  in  the  winter  about  speed,  and 
2:10  is  a  very  common  clip  around  the  stove.  If  your  colt 
can  trot  a  quarter  the  first  month's  handling  in  fiftj^-five 
seconds  he  is  a  fair  stepper  but  not  fast.  You  must  recol- 
lect it  is  now  only  one  month  that  you  have  been  handling 
him  in  harness,  and  a  good  many  wet  days  have  intervened 
when  you  could  not  brush  him  along,  and  probably  he  has 
not  yet  come  to  the  same  speed  that  he  showed  you  in  the 
leading  shed.  Tlie  fact  is  he  is  not  quite  up  to  the  game. 
The  run  through  April,  the  not  very  regular  work  through 
the  dreamy  month  of  May,  brings  j^ou  to  the  first  of  June 
guessing  about  tlie  August  races.  You  also  have  been 
drivina:  older  horses  with  fast  records  that  whirl  off  their 
quarters  in  thirty-five  seconds,  and  colt  training  is  tame 
business. 

I  am  afraid  you  are  getting  impatient  all  for  nothing, 
and  it  requires  patience  to  train  colts.  The  first  week  in 
June.  The  sporting  pax>ers  have  come;  you  run  them  over 
for  news,  especially  colt  items.  The  regular  old  stereotyped 
item  is  there  fished  up  for  use  again— had  been  thrown  in  the 


LIFE   WITH   THE   TROTTERS.  433 

early  summer  deiDartment.     It  runs  about  like  this:  "Your 

correspondent  made  a  flying  trip  to and  found  track 

matters  lively.  In  talking  with  one  of  the  prominent  drivers, 
he  said  Geo.  Leavitt's  yearling  had  shown  a  half  in  1:20, 
and  no  doubt  would  wipe  out  all  colt  records  this  fall.'' 
More  trouble  in  camp  again,  for  that  same  colt  is  entered 
in  the  August  meeting,  and  will  no  doubt  have  a  sure  thing 
of  winning.  Do  not  get  nervous  over  this  old  chestnut.  If 
there  is  any  truth  in  the  report,  he  is  already  overworked, 
and  it  is  dollars  to  doughnuts  that  he  will  not  start.  When 
you  are  trotting  in  August  he  will  be  out  in  pasture  nursing 
a  sore  finger  or  gaining  strength  to  winter  on.  If  you  area 
novice  in  the  business,  or  even  quite  an  old  hand,  but  in- 
clined to  be  nervous,  such  items  will  set  you  on  edge  a  little, 
or  serve  to  discourage  you  somewhat  for  no  good  reason, 
because  your  colt  has  only  been  handled  enough  to  fairly 
know  the  way  around  the  track. 

You  have  June  and  July  to  prepare  in  yet,  and  if  you 
are  training  seven  or  eight  yearlings  the  one  you  work  the 
most  moderately  and  the  one  that  keejps  coming  a  little  all 
the  time,  will  be  the  best  one  you  will  have  to  start.  If  you 
have  your  colt  keyed  up  to  a  high  pitch  now,  he  will  have 
nothing  left  in  August.  It  is  important  to  understand  how 
to  get  an  animal  up  to  the  highest  state  of  condition  and 
perfect  form,  to  accomplish  a  great  feat.  It  is  not  done  in  a 
week  or  a  month,  and  can  not  be  done  j)roperly  with  too 
much  haste.  To  do  it  well  requires  more  than  guess  work, 
but  also  needs  strict  attention  to  all  the  details  connected 
with  it,  and  those  with  a  natural  tact  for  the  business  suc- 
ceed the  best. 

June  is  a  good  month  to  commence  sending  the  colt 
along.  He  is  now  in  fair  fettle,  his  muscles  are  hard,  and 
he  is  beginning  to  get  control  of  his  legs,  is  not  afraid  if  he 
makes  a  misstep,  and  has  not  been  forced  to  trot  very  much 
faster  than  he  has  felt  like  going.  It  is  a  good  plan  to  now 
get  him  into  company  occasionally,  something  a  shade 
slower  than  he  is.     Teach  him  to  score  up  and  start  away 


434  LIFE    WITH    THE   TKOTTEKS. 

within  himself,  but  with  a  resolute  air,  goin^  the  first  quar- 
ter slDw,  letting  him  out  the  second  quarter,  close  up  to  his 
clij).  Continue  tliis  right  along,  but  not  always  in  the  same 
place  on  the  track.  Be  careful  not  to  have  the  colt  learn  to 
sjDeed  in  certain  places  on  the  track,  but  teach  him  that  one 
place  is  as  much  a  speeding  ground  as  another  and  that  his 
duty  is  to  go  when  called  upon.  Keep  the  prompter  a  little 
back,  as  a  rule,  but  near  enough  to  encourage  the  colt.  If 
the  jn'ompter  is  too  fast  or  is  allowed  to  go  ahead  too  much, 
it  soon  discourages  the  pux3il  from  doing  his  best.  Recol- 
lect that  you  are  now  training  and  do  it  with  a  will  and 
determination.  When  you  speed  i^ush  it  with  vigor,  don't 
go  droning  along — that  doesn'  t  amount  to  shucks.  Be  care- 
ful to  know  just  how  far  you  drive,  and  if  you  have 
not  learned  to  carry  your  watch  in  hand  all  the  time  with- 
out its  being  any  bother  or  trouble,  or  so  that  you  even  think 
of  it  (except  when  you  want  to  look  at  it)  you  are  at  a 
great  disadvantage,  for  it  is  necessary  to  know  how  fast  you 
go,  to  put  it  down  when  you  are  through  in  a  book  kept  for 
that  purpose,  which  will  be  a  great  help  to  you  in  training. 

If  you  are  handling  many  horses,  both  okl  and  young, 
this  book  is  convenient  to  refer  to  from  day  to  day  or  from 
week  to  week  to  learn  what  they  have  j^reviously  done,  and 
under  what  circumstances,  what  weight  of  shoes  used,  in 
fact  noting  all  the  changes,  such  as  bits,  boots,  bearing- 
reins,  etc.  You  may  be  able  to  carry  all  this  in  your  head, 
if  so  all  the  better,  and  the  book  will  verify  it  for  you;  sort 
of  double  entry  you  know. 

How  far  to  work  a  colt,  I  can  not  tell  you  any  more  than  I 
can  how  big  a  lump  of  chalk  is.  Colts  differ  in  size,  stam- 
ina, disposition,  and  strength.  Some  have  got  to  indulge 
in  a  little  foolishness  before  they  are  ready  to  do  right — play 
with  the  birds  along  the  fence,  or  the  shadows  of  the  poles, 
while  others  are  strict  business  all  the  time.  It  is  safe 
enough  to  figure  not  to  exceed  four  miles  with  any  colt  and 
not  less  than  two  and  one-half.  With  the  proper  care,  such 
as  walking  and  turning  out,  colts  do  not  need  much  jogging. 


LIFE   WITH   THE  TROTTERS.  436 

They  are  ready  to  speed  very  soon  after-  getting  to  the 
track. 

July  is  now  close  at  hand  and  great  reports  of  speed 
coming  in  from  all  sides — and  as  we  have  had  no  repeats 
yet,  except  those  made  on  the  track  without  unhitching 
(that  is,  speeding  a  quarter  and  then  a  little  walk  and  back 
again),  we  will  set  apart  the  last  week  in  June  for  a  regular 
repeat,  in  company  with  two  or  three  others  if  jDossible. 
The  day  comes  ;^nd  is  favorable,  the  track  good,  weather 
waim,  and  there  are  a  few  friends  in  the  stand,  which  enliv- 
ens the  occasion.  Out  of  the  three  or  four  colts  entered,  or 
perhaps  more,  it  is  necessary  to  get  a  line  on  which  are  the 
best  ones  to  keep  u})  the  payments.  It  is  of  no  use  to  pay 
out  more  entrance  than  the  stake  is  worth.  Of  course  you 
know  which  is  the  fastest  by  three  or  four  seconds,  and  out 
you  come  with  him.  After  a  little  warming  up  he  steps  off 
his  first  quarter  in  fifty-three  seconds  and  repeats  back  in 
fifty.  Take  him  into  the  stable,  give  him  good  care,  and  in 
thirty  minutes  bring  him  out  again  and  he  shows  you  a 
quarter  in  forty -nine  seconds,  and  no  better.  You  then  get 
out  the  others  which  you  think  can  not  do  quite  as  well,  and 
to  your  surprise  one  of  them  goes  a  quarter  in  forty-eight  and 
a  half  seconds. 

You  were  quite  sure  he  could  not  go  as  fast  as  the  other 
one  into  two  or  three  seconds.  Now  you  conclude  there  is 
something  wrong.  You  have  been  holding  the  watch  on 
them  and  have  timed  all  of  them  faster  than  this  fellow 
when  the  track  and  conditions  were  less  favorable.  Now 
this  goes  to  show  you  that  it  is  best  to  have  a  little  leeway 
or  margin  of  a  few  seconds  when  you  go  into  races.  Horses 
are  not  always  up  to  their  best  form.  You  are  probably 
Avorried  about  the  Breeders'  Meeting  in  August  and  at  a  loss 
to  know  which  colt  to  keej)  in  the  stakes,  as  the  slowest  one 
did  the  best  and  acted  the  most  like  a  race-horse.  You  dis- 
like to  throw  him  overboard,  so  without  any  more  ado  will 
keep  two  of  them  in  anyway.  If  you  had  analyzed  the  trial 
carefully,   perhaps  you  would  have  done  differently.     Had 


436  LIFE   WITH   THE   TROTTERS. 

you  noticed  that  the  first  colt,  which  did  not  go  the  quarter 
quite  as  fast  as  the  other,  did  the  last  forty  rods  of  that 
quarter  in  twenty  seconds  easily,  and  was  full  of  trot  when 
you  j)nlled  up,  you  would  feel  differently.  For  some  unac- 
countable reason  you  started  off  very  slowly  with  the  first 
colt  and  with  a  watch  in  your  hand  did  not  take  notice  that 
when  you  i^assed  the  furlong  pole  it  was  thirty  seconds, 
while  your  slower  colt  had  got  there  in  twenty-four  seconds. 

This  will  teach  you  a -lesson.  To  succeed  in  this  line  of 
business  as  well  as  any  other  everything  must  be  carefully 
gone  over,  looked  into  and  digested.  This  very  instance  will 
illustrate  it  quite  plainly.  You  are  M'ondering  which  is  the 
fastest  colt;  and  one  of  them  is  showing  a  forty  clij)  any  day 
while  the  other  one  is  about  eight  seconds  slower.  If  the 
colts  are  growing  and  doing  first  rate,  don't  act  stale,  are 
gaining  in  speed  a  little  all  the  time,  and  are  square  in  their 
gait,  it  is  well  enough  to  keep  them  going;  but  if  they  are 
getting  unsteady  and  mixed,  let  up  on  them  for  a  couple  of 
weeks,  b}^  turning  them  out  to  grass,  continuing  their  oat 
rations,  but  in  less  quantity.  You  need  a  fresh  colt  not  a 
stale  one  for  August,  and  there  is  nothing  gained  by  work- 
ing them  so  much  as  to  get  them  disgusted.  Drive  them  out 
on  the  road  occasionally,  which  affords  a  change.  You  will 
find  a  smooth  j)iece  somewhere;  turn  them  around  and  let 
them  start  for  home  at  their  best  clip.  They  will  enjoy  it 
and  learn  to  go  fast  from  their  own  inclination,  and  you  get 
at  the  object  sought  for  better  than  by  urging  them.  The 
colts  use  their  own  way  and  go  with  a  free,  open  stride, 
which  is  so  much  admired  when  they  are  turned  loose.  They 
are  young  things  yet  and  want  fun,  and  it  is  recreation  for 
them  to  have  a  change  of  drives. 

If  possible  keep  the  colts  where  they  can  see  one  an- 
other; they  will  be  more  cheerful  and  brighter,  thrive  better 
and  make  better  horses,  from  the  fact  they  do  not  get  lone- 
some and  sour,  and  of  course  a  cheerful,  contented  horse 
drives  better  and  is  safer  than  a  gloomy,  morose  one.  Bear 
in  mind  that  some  day  vou  may  want  to  sell  this  animal  to 


LIFE   WITH   THE   TKOTTEKS,  437 

Mr.  Bonner  and  he  will  not  want  it  unless  it  is  the  best  one 
on  earth ;  and  you  surely  will  be  proud  to  have  him  speak 
well  of  the  colt's  intelligence.  And  in  a  very  great  measure 
the  intelligence  which  the  driving  or  track  horse  displays, 
is  imx^arted  to  him  by  the  man  who  rears  and  brings  him 
out.  I  mean  by  this  the  driver  wiio  takes  a  colt  as  a  wean- 
ling, breaks  him,  drives  him  in  races  and  gives  him  his  first 
starts  and  records. 

August  has  come;  the  races  both  with  runners  and  trot- 
ters are  occupying  the  attention  of  vast  audiences  all  over 
the  land.  Daily  reports  are  eagerly  looked  foi  and  each 
item  scanned  with  interest  to  find  out  all  the  news  pertain- 
ing to  our  great  American  sport.  It  really  has  fastened 
its  enchanting  and  seductive  grip  upon  the  people  of  this 
country.  From  one  end  of  our  broad  domain  to  the  other, 
in  almost  every  village  or  town,  there  is  a  si)eeding  place,  if 
not  a  race-track.  There  is  no  doubt  in  my  mind  that  trotting 
races  in  this  country  are  now  but  in  their  infancy.  Trot- 
ting is  the  fashion,  and  will  be,  and  will  surely  become  the 
poi)ular  sport  in  other  countries  as  well  as  this.  Why  should 
it  not  be  so?  For  trotting  is  truly  a  gentleman' s  sport,  with 
less  demoralizing  influences  than  almost  any  other,  and  can 
not  be  dragged  down  to  the  level  of  a  college  foot-ball  slug- 
ging match.  The  trotting  horse  does  not  lose  his  value  or 
usefulness.  His  proper  education  on  the  track  fits  him  for 
a  perfect  road  horse  for  ladies  and  gentlemen  to  drive.  It  is 
a  grand  school,  and  the  best  driving  horses  graduate  from  it. 

Our  colt  has  had  a  run  to  grass  for  five  or  six  days,  but 
is  taken  up  nights,  groomed  and  fed,  and  is  looking  the 
picture  of  health.  He  jogs  fresh  and  elastic  and  acts  like 
a  trotter.  ( )nly  fifteen  days  more  and  we  must  try  his 
mettle  in  an  actual  contest.  No  foolishness  now;  the  best 
colts  in  the  State  are  entered  against  you,  and  it  will  be  a 
matter  of  pride  to  win,  and  chagrin  to  lose.  Now  go  on 
with  the  colt's  work  vigorously.  He  has  not  run  out  long- 
enough  to  become  soft,  and  the  distances  you  speed  him  are 
short.      The  races  for  yearlings  at  the   "State  Breeders' 


438  LIFE   WITTI   THE  TIIOTTERS. 

Meeting"  were  made  for  half-mile  heats,  and  you  have 
trained  accordingly.  Repeat  the  colt  quarters  at  nearly  his 
best  sj^eed,  starting  from  the  wire.  In  this  way  you  teach 
him  to  go  away  well,  without  excitement,  and  in  short  races 
with  colts  a  good  start  is  a  winning  point.  Endeavor  now 
to  give  him  such  education  as  will  help  him  in  his  race. 
J)o  not  have  your  colt  get  a  notion  of  hesitating  and  w^ant- 
ing  to  turn  around  to  come  back  after  leaving  the  wire, 
which  they  will  do  if  you  are  not  careful.  To  avoid  this 
do  not  turn  around  twice  in  the  same  place.  Be  careful 
not  to  let  the  colt  get  so  he  knows  better  what  is  to  be  done 
than  you  do  yourself.  Arrange  matters  with  him  in  a  satis- 
factory manner,  with  the  exception  always  that  the  driver 
is  the  head.  The  colt  very  soon  learns  to  know  if  you  are 
in  earnest,  and  does  not  need  much  encouragement  to  have 
his  own  way,  and  will  try  to  hold  an  argument  with  you. 

Drive  him  in  ccmipany  a  good  deal,  taking  different 
positions.  He  will  not  get  the  pole  except  when  entitled  to 
it,  and  if  accustomed  to  always  having  it  at  home,  he  will 
feel  awkward  without  it  when  awaj^  Teach  him  to  drive 
close  to  the  wheel  of  another  sulky,  use  your  whip  around 
him  in  a  noisy  but  gentle  way,  but  never  stinging  him.  Let 
it  rattle  in  the  wheel  until  he  gets  accustomed  to  the  noise 
without  frightening  him .  If  you  don' t,  some  ' '  Smart  Aleck ' ' 
with  a  dull,  spiritless  dung-hill  of  a  colt  that  has  no  possi- 
ble chance  of  winning  will  make  it  his  particular  business 
to  have  his  whip  in  the  wheel  all  the  time  except  right 
under  the  judges'  stand.  In  fact  get  the  colt  as  nearly  as 
possible  accustomed  to  what  may  happen  on  a  race- track  in 
Jersey. 

With  this  learned  and  the  last  payment  made  in  the 
stake,  it  is  best  to  ship  the  colt  two  or  three  days  before  the 
meeting  commences.  Put  him  in  the  car  with  a  companion 
he  is  acquainted  with  if  possible.  Avoid  making  any 
change  of  the  groom  who  takes  care  of  him,  because  you 
are  going  to  the  races;  keep  the  same  man  with  him.  If 
you  do  not  the  colt  will  miss  his  attendant  and  perhaps  get 


LIFE   WITH   THE  TROTTERS.  439 

nervous  and  not  eat  well.  Do  not  be  one  of  tliese  fellows  who 
are  always  complaining  that  in  some  most  unaccountable 
way  their  horse  is  "dead  off,"  vaguely  hinting  that  there 
must  be  something  wrong,  declaring  "they'll  never  come 
to  this  track  again,"  and  all  for  no  reason  except  their  own 
neglect  and  inattention  to  business.  Be  sure  you  have  a  man 
who  will  stay  in  the  car  all  the  time  with  the  colt;  if  not  you 
had  better  go  yourself.  It  is  time  and  money  well  spent  to 
make  the  acquaintance  of  the  engineer,  which  can  readily 
be  done  with  a  few  good  cigars,  and  a  nice  talk,  politely 
asking  him  if  he  will  be  careful  in  stopping  and  switching 
the  car  as  you  have  valuable  stock  going  to  the  races. 
When  you  get  to  your  destination  take  time  and  unload 
carefully;  have  no  excitement  and  "hurrah  boys"  about 
it.  Get  your  baggage  drawn  out  and  have  the  colt  led  along 
with  the  outfit.  If  you  have  several  animals  with  you  keep 
them  together  and  not  strung  out  all  along  the  route,  fret- 
ting and  neighing  because  they  are  separated.  Arriving  at 
the  track,  if  you  have  not  had  a  man  in  advance  to  fix  up 
the  stall  and  have  it  ready,  find  the  secretary  who  has  as- 
signed stalls  for  your  entries,  get  the  numbers,  and  if  the 
staUs  are  not  thoroughly  cleaned  and  fit  to  occupy,  have  it 
done,  and  done  well,  being  careful  about  nails,  broken  glass 
and  narrow  doors.  Get  the  colt  in  as  soon  as  possible,  have 
his  legs  bandaged,  have  him  brushed  off,  his  feet  washed, 
and  put  him  where  he  can  smell  of  the  other  horses.  Shut 
him  up  and  let  him  rest,  for  riding  in  a  car  is  tiresome  work 
for  a  green  colt.  When  evening  comes  walk  him,  give 
him  a  little  grass,  and  let  the  man  in  charge  sleep  in  his 
itall;  the  colt  wiU  rest  better  and  be  more  contented. 


CHAPTER    XIX. 

Preparing  the  colt  for  the  yearling  race — Accustoming  him  to  objects  about  the 
track — No  training  necessary  at  this  stage — Be  on  time  when  the  race  is 
called,  and  don't  keep  people  waiting — Scoring  half  a  dozen  yearling 
colts  a  tedious  job — What  to  do  after  the  word  is  given — No  occasion  to  be 
in  a  hurry  to  get  the  pole — Do  your  best  work  on  the  straight  side — How  to 
drive  when  you  look  like  a  winner  in  the  home  stretch — The  secret  of  your 
success  is  in  careful  and  intelligent  methods  of  training — Shipping  the 
colt  home  again  and  preparing  him  for  another  race  in  October — A  mile 
once  in  awhile  well  within  his  speed — The  quality  of  sulkiness — Some 
inside  history  about  the  famous  trotter  Guy — How  he  went  a  mile  to  pole 
in  2:17 — An  exciting  experience  with  Guy  when  he  ran  away  on  a  trot, 
and  stopped  only  from  force  of  habit — A  terrible  accident  prevented  by 
the  horse's  intelligence — What  the  writer  accomplished  in  one  season  by 
the  methods  of  training  deseribed. 

Tuesday  morning  opens  bright  and  pleasant.  The  colt 
eats  well,  is  contented,  and  acts  like  an  old  campaigner. 
He  appreciates  the  fact  of  his  friends  being  with  him,  that 
is,  having  the  same  man  to  take  care  of  him,  and  j^recisely 
the  same  attention  he  received  at  home,  besides,  a  horse  to 
see  and  smell  of  that  he  hn  s  known  at  home.  Give  him  a  walk 
about  the  grounds,  hitch  liim  up  and  drive  him  on  the 
track.  Get  him  accustomed  to  groups  of  men,  standing 
here  and  there,  also  to  the  horses  hitched  to  the  fences 
inside  and  outside  of  the  track,  which  is  done  by  walking 
and  driving  past  them  slowly.  Notice  any  particular  object 
that  he  is  shy  of,  and  manage  to  get  him  acquainted  witli  it 
if  possible;  you  have  plenty  of  time.  The  yearling  race 
will  not  be  called  until  Tliursday,  and  I  think  more  of  get- 

(440) 


LIFE   WITH  THE  TROTTERS.  441 

ting  a  colt  acquainted  with  the  surroundings  than  anything 
else  at  present. 

If  you  can  use  what  speed  you  had  at  home  you  will  do 
well,  and  need  not  expect  to  gain  much  by  training  while 
here.  You  must  get  the  colt  thoroughly  acquainted  with 
the  track.  It  is  of  diiferent  soil,  the  turns  a  re  much  sharper 
and  it  is  only  a  half-mile.  All  these  things  make  a  great 
difference  with  a  youngster,  and  not  so  much  with  an  old 
one.  On  Wednesday  work  him  out  following  the  same 
general  directions,  being  governed  by  your  colt's  disposi- 
tion, regarding  how  much  sharp  work  you  give  him.  Have 
him  led  out  in  the  afternoon  while  the  races  are  in  progress, 
that  he  may  see  the  crowd  and  know  where  all  the  noise 
comes  from.  In  this  way  by  Thursday  afternoon  you  will 
be  astonished  at  how  well  he  will  act.  Thursday  morning- 
give  him  lis  usual  jog,  also  scoring  up  a  little  in  company. 
Have  him  fed  a  little  earlier  at  noon,  look  his  boots  over 
carefully,  see  that  they  are  soft  and  pliable,  and  if  any 
stitches  are  needed.  Examine  the  shoes  and  clinches,  as  it 
may  be  necessary  to  have  a  nail  taken  out  and  a  new  one 
in.  Have  everything  ready  to  come  out  i)romptly  when  the 
bell  rings.  Keep  it  uppermost  in  your  mind  that  a  little 
delay  on  your  ])nvt  may  destroy  the  pleasure  of  a  great 
many  people,  and  is  annoying  to  the  judges  and  subjects 
you  to  a  penalty,  which  in  justice  to  the  people  avIio  ])ay  to 
see  the  entertainment  should  be  strictly  enforced.  This 
meeting  has  been  advertised,  the  people  have  been  solicited 
to  attend  and  are  asked  to  pay  admission  fees;  in  this  way 
they  become  partners  in  the  business,  and  it  is  due  them 
that  the  i^rogramme  shall  be  fulfilled  promptly,  honestly 
and  expeditiously.  A  few  minutes  after  the  bell  rings,  we 
ilnd  that  out  of  the  fourteen  entries  made  in  March  only 
live  make  the  last  payment  and  come  out  for  the  word,  and 
live  starters  in  a  yearling  race  is  a  good  many.  As  a  rule 
I  would  rather  start  in  a  field  of  ten  with  an  old  cam- 
paigner. 

The  judges  draw  for  position,  and  assign  you  next  to  the 


442  LIFE   Vv  ITK  THE  TKOTTERS. 

outside.  Everything  is  now  ready  to  commence  the  race. 
You  drive  back  to  the  distance  stand,  and  turn  around  to 
score  up.  You  get  a  little  way,  when  you  have  to  pull  uj)  sud- 
denly as  some  fellow  has  a  colt  which  will  not  turn  around. 
You  go  back  again,  and  try  hard  to  get  a  start,  but  some  of 
them  will  not  come  down  a  four-minute  gait,  and  some 
will  run  and  act  badly.  After  several  attempts  in  this  w^ay 
the  judges  call  you  back,  warning  you  not  to  come  so  fast, 
and  wishing  to  obey  them,  your  colt  gets  imx3atient  under 
the  restraint.  It  is  almost  impossible  to  get  a  good  even 
start  with  live  yearlings  so  early  in  the  season,  especially 
when  several  of  them  have  never  scored  up  before.  If  you 
think  you  have  the  most  speed  it  is  better  for  you  to  go 
well  back  and  come  down  behind  nodding  for  the  word, 
even  if  pretty  well  back,  j)rovided  you  Lave  not  found  out 
while  scoring  a  hard  one  to  beat.  In  this  case  do  not  throw 
away  a  chance  to  win  by  trailing;  but  keep  an  eye  out  for 
the  one  that  is  likely  to  make  trouble  and  get  off  even  with 
him.  But  if  none  seem  to  be  dangerous,  by  scoring  down 
behind  you  do  not  madden  your  colt  by  pulling  him  back, 
and  if  you  win  you  will  probably  give  the  other  colts  the  go 
by  on  the  home  stretch,  which  looks  well  and  captivates 
the  audience. 

After  seven  or  eight  attempts  the  word  is  finally  given 
to  a  straggling  start  with  your  colt  fairly  well  up  and  trotting 
well.  Some  are  running  and  breaking  and  some  partly  com- 
ing to  a  standstill,  exj^ecting  to  turn  around  and  go  back. 
Keep  your  whole  attention  on  your  own  colt;  do  not  be  in 
too  much  haste  to  get  around  them  on  the  first  turn,  it  is  bet- 
ter to  drive  a  little  wide  than  too  close,  to  avoid  accident. 
When  you  get  on  the  straight  side  of  the  track  let  the  colt 
go  along  to  take  advantage  of  the  distance.  It  is  much 
easier  to  drive  by  then  than  to  wait  until  you  get  to  the 
turn.  You  have  disposed  or  them  all  but  one  as  you  enter 
the  home  stretch,  and  are  right  on  the  leader's  wheel.  Lie 
right  there  until  fairly  squared  away  for  home,  then  make 
your  drive  and  do  it  with  determination.    You  started  away 


LIFE  WITH  THE   TROTTEKS.  443 

next  to  the  outside,  the  colt  ahead  of  you  had  the  pole,  you 
have  overtaken  him  at  a  disadvantage,  which  convinces  you 
that  you  have  the  most  speed.  It  is  not  best  to  overdo 
things  and  make  a  break.  Gradually  draw  ahead  and  you 
will  win  easily.  Turn  around  carefully,  avoiding  a  collision 
with  the  other  colts  who  come  straggling  along,  dismount 
only  by  permission  from  the  judges,  have  the  colt  unli itched 
from  the  sulky  to  avoid  accident  and  attend  strictly  to  his 
care  for  the  next  heat. 

You  look  at  the  time-board  and  see  you  have  won  the 
heat  in  one  minute  and  twenty-seven  seconds  (1:27),  a  good 
performance  for  a  Northern-bred  yearling  in  August  in  a 
field  of  five  starters.  They  all  come  out  to  start  for  the 
next  heat,  as  there  is  no  distance  recognized  in  half-mile 
heats,  which  is  wrong,  as  there  should  never  be  any  such 
race  given,  otherwise  there  should  be  a  distance  to  prevent 
collusion  in  a  close  race. 

The  second  heat  you  start  away  with  the  pole,  and  go 
through  the  regular  scoring  again,  as  the  boys,  if  they  can 
not  win.  aie  bound  to  try  hard.  Keep  well  up  in  your  posi- 
tion at  the  pole,  for  it  leaves  you  in  an  awkward  place  to  lose 
your  place  going  around  the  first  turn.  The  judges  will 
claim  to  protect  you,  but  will  often  overlook  it,  when  the 
others  are  well  in  line,  and  it  is  best  for  you  to  look  out  for 
your  own  interest  a  little  in  this  respect.  Do  not  get  care- 
less and  think  you  have  a  sure  thing  because  you  won  the 
first  heat,  for  a  very  little  mismanagement  will  lose  a  race. 
With  a  fair  start  you  get  away  and  have  no  trouble  to  win, 
holding  your  position  easily  all  the  way.  This  heat  is  1:26 
and  the  colt  was  not  j^ushed  hard  to  win.  All  admire  him 
and  can  see  wonderful  XDOssibilities  in  Lis  future.  You  are 
proud  of  him,  as  are  all  of  the  fellows  from  your  section. 
Now  you  feel  amply  paid  for  your  perseverance  and  close 
attention  to  all  the  little  details  of  rearing  and  breaking. 
Several  colts  in  the  race  had  as  much  speed  as  your  colt, 
sbow^ed  faster  in  places,  and  would  have  won  but  for  some 
cause  which  ought  not  to  have  existed. 

29 


444  LIFE   WITH  THE   TROTTEES. 

The  secret  is  all  in  a  nutshell :  You  have  trained  more 
systematically,  more  humanely  and  more  consistently  with 
all  rules  that  govern  health  and  strength.  Your  colt  has 
never  been  whipped  into  obedience,  and  made  sulky;  has 
never  been  overdriven,  and  left  to  cool  out  too  suddenly, 
and  is  willing  to  do  his  best,  and  tries  to  without  being- 
afraid.  The  old  farmers  that  had  colts  in  the  same  race  and 
were  beaten  ten  or  fifteen  seconds,  gather  around  and  look 
your  colt  over,  and  declare:  "  He  must  be  overtrained,  as  he 
acted  just  like  an  old  trotter,"  and  they  will  beat  him  sure 
another  year.  They  forget  to  look  at  his  breeding,  but  not 
his  make-up;  and  some  old  deacon  with  a  good  deal  of  sense 
takes  out  his  tape  line  and  finds  that  the  colt's  mechanical 
pro]3ortions  measure  exactly  to  his  notion  of  the  correct 
form.  Had  he  looked  in  the  catalogue  and  noticed  that  the 
€olt  is  standard  under  Rule  6,  he  might  have  known  he 
would  have  measured  right,  for  he  lias  been  bred  for  sev- 
eral generations  in  a  way  that  begets  trotting  conform- 
ation. 

You  ship  the  colt  home  in  the  same  careful  way,  and  it 
will  not  need  many  instructions  to  the  rubber  to  look  after 
him  carefully,  for  if  you  do  not  look  out  now,  he  will  pay 
his  entire  attention  to  this  colt  and  neglect  everything  else. 
It  is  best  not  to  overdo  the  attention;  keep  on  in  an 
even  way,  recollecting  that  the  colt  has  no  mark  that  is 
admitted  upon  the  records.  To  get  a  record  he  will  have  to 
trot  a  mile.  In  this  locality  there  will  be  no  opportunity  to 
start  in  a  race  for  yearlings,  except  the  ' '  Midway  Breeders' 
Meeting,"  which  is  now  a  fixed  yearly  event,  takes  j)lace  in 
October,  and  is  open  to  all.  It  draws  largely  from  New 
York,  Pennsylvania,  and  New  Jersey,  and  is  the  only  one 
outside  of  a  "  State  Breeders' "  meeting,  held  in  this  por- 
tion of  the  country,  to  enable  breeders  to  give  their  young 
things  records,  in  actual  contest;  and  its  first  meeting  was 
liberally  patronized. 

The  colt  arrives  home  safely,  and  is  at  once  made  the 
pet  of  the  farm  and  due  respect  is  paid  him  which  of  course 


LIFE   WITH  THE  TROTTERS.  446 

lie  is  entitled  to.  He  is  but  little  over  one  year  old,  and  has 
had  his  first  engagement,  and  stood  the  fire  well.  You  may 
have  others  as  fast,  but  the  peojDle  will  not  be  as  anxious  to 
see  them  as  this  one,  for  his  laurels  were  won  in  actual  con- 
test, not  in  the  show  ring.  Continue  his  education  about 
the  same  as  before.  A  half-mile  in  1 :26  was  about  the  rate 
of  the  Northern  yearling  record,  until  1888.  As  you  have 
never  been  a  mile  yet  with  him,  you  must  have  him  in  good 
condition.  Keej)  up  his  work  in  company  as  much  as  is 
convenient  when  you  speed  him,  but  never  take  a  colt  out 
on  the  track  or  road,  to  have  a  visit  Avitli  some  friend  or 
neighbor.  They  learn  very  quickly  how  to  gossip,  and 
rather  enjoy  it.  It  is  better  to  teach  them  when  along- 
side of  other  horses  to  be  ready  for  business.  Many  a 
race  has  been  lost  that  could  have  been  won  had  the 
leading  horse  not  fooled  away  his  time  by  waiting  for  com- 
pany. 

In  the  latter  part  of  August  and  through  September  the 
,  flies  and  mosquitoes  are  very  annoying  and  worry  the  colts 
greatly,  and  much  can  be  done  to  save  them  by  nets  and 
bars.  A  short,  light  leather  net,  to  p>rotect  a  colt  behind  the 
saddle  of  the  harness,  is  sufficient,  and  will  help  to  keep 
him  in  good  humor,  and  when  turned  out  to  grass,  a  sheet 
well  put  on  and  fastened  i^roperly  will  save  more  in  the  colt 
than  the  wear  and  tear  of  a  sheet.  Through  September  give 
the  colt  a  slow  mile  about  once  a  week.  I  mean  by  a  slow 
mile,  a  mile  always  well  within  his  rule  of  sjoeed.  For  in- 
stance, if  the  colt  can  trot  a  mile  pushed  to  his  utmost  limit 
in  2:50,  drive  him  a  mile  in  3:00  and  the  last  quarter  a  2:o0 
gait.  In  this  Avay  you  do  not  take  out  of  the  colt  all  of  his 
life  and  ambition,  neither  do  you  let  him  know  that  the  mile 
is  too  long  for  him  or  get  him  discouraged. 

You  will  find  there  is  a  grain  of  sulk  in  the  makeup  of 
many  good  race-horses.  It  requires  a  good  deal  of  tact  and 
ingenuity  to  get  out  of  such  animals  their  full  measure  of 
speed.  Take  the  case  of  the  black  gelding  Guy  that  was 
handled  by  me  in  1885,  when  five  years  old.     He  would  do 


446  LIFE  WITH   THE  TROTTEES. 

anything  it  was  fair  to  ask  a  horse  to  do,  if  he  could  arrange 
to  do  it  exactly  his  own  way,  and  I  was  hapi)ily  situated  to 
handle  him.  I  also  had  the  time  to  humor  him,  as  the  owner 
did  not  want  him  to  start  in  races  until  the  next  year.  Guy 
had  a  great  aversion  to  going  on  a  track,  and  acted  disgusted 
at  the  sight  of  one;  still  I  never  could  learn  he  had  been 
overworked  or  overdriven.  On  the  contrary  it  was  said  his 
work  had  always  been  short;  fast  quarters  and  sometimes  a 
half.  I  used  him  on  the  road  all  through  the  month  of  May, 
both  single  and  double.  When  he  was  hitched  to  road  cart 
and  having  driven  five  or  six  miles  about  the  country,  I 
would  then  drive  in  onto  the  track,  and  around  once  or 
twice,  being  careful  to  keep  him  from  speeding;  although 
it  was  always  the  uppermost  thing  in  his  mind,  when  he  got 
to  the  track,  to  grab  the  bit  and  go.  He  seemed  to  have 
learned  that  was  the  game.  Somehow  or  other  he  had 
got  a  wrong  imi^ression  of  what  was  wanted  of  him. 
He  never  acted  badly  with  me,  for  the  same  reason  that 
"  Jack  did  not  eat  his  supper" ;  I  would  not  give  him  a 
chance. 

I  had  no  engagements  for  Guy  so  I  worked  him  with  the 
sole  object  of  getting  him  over  his  idiosyncrasy  (more  com- 
monly calleJ  by  horsemen  ''bees  in  his  bonnet").  I  think 
my  plan  would  have  succeeded,  as  he  constantly  improved. 
But  thinking  he  would  go  well  to  pole  with  Clingstone  I 
trained  them  for  a  double  team,  giving  them  a  pole  record 
of  2:17,  which  mile  could  have  been  done  in  2:15  with  the 
circumstances  all  favorable.  The  second  heat  was  2:17^  and 
while  cooling  out  for  the  last  heat  a  slight  shower  of  rain 
fell,  which  moistened  the  track  enough  to  make  the  mud 
fly,  causing  Guy  to  take  too  much  hold  of  the  bit,  and  trot 
overfast  for  Clingstone  in  places.  I  never  had  a  good 
opportunity  to  beat  2:17  with  them  again,  as  after  this  per- 
formance we  had  offers  to  exhibit  them  at  different  points 
in  the  grand  circuit,  the  first  place  being  at  Hartford. 
Arrangements  were  deferred  until  the  time  to  show  them 
was  so  close  at  hand  that  the  team  was  not  shipped  from 


LIFE  'vVITH  THE  TROTTERS.  447 

Cleveland  until  the  16tli  of  August,  arriving  at  Hartford  on 
the  IStli.  In  driving  out  to  the  track,  Guy  was  so  leg 
weary,  from  long  standing  in  the  car,  that  he  stumbled  and 
fell,  bruising  and  cutting  his  knee  severely,  consequently 
the  19th  Avas  spent  in  nursing  him,  when  he  ought  to  have 
been  exercised.  On  the  20th,  with  the  track  full  of  horses 
scoring  up  with  him  and  annoying  him,  the  team  trotted  in 
2:19,  the  last  quarter  a  2:13  gait.  This  for  a  five-year-old 
with  no  record  to  harness,  was,  under  the  circumstances,  a 
wonderfully  good  j)erf ormance.  I  am  not  surprised  that  with 
three  years  more  age  Guy  trotted  in  2:12. 

While  the  colt  is  resting  I  will  tell  you  a  little  story 
about  Guy  which  has  not  been  in  print.  One  fine  morning 
in  June,  just  after  a  nice  warm  shower,  Guy  was  hitched  to 
the  light  cart  and  I  started  to  give  him  his  work  on  a  straight 
piece  of  road  about  a  mile  long,  partly  shaded  by  large  maple 
trees,  with  their  long  low  branches  overhanging  the  whole 
roadway.  At  the  end  of  this  drive  there  is  an  old  railroad 
track  graded  up  much  higher  than  the  road,  and  very  steep 
down  on  the  other  side.  I  seldom  crossed  this  track,  as  my 
usual  drive  was  to  this  railroad,  then  forward  and  back,  until 
the  amount  of  work  necessary  to  be  done  was  finished.  The 
horses  under  my  charge  had  the  route  well  learned,  and  ex- 
IDected  a  little  brush  occasionally  before  returning  to  the 
stable.  The  morning  I  speak  of,  as  I  passed  through  the 
little  town  of  Glenville  my  youngest  boy  was  waiting  there 
•with  the  mail  for  me.  He  looked  so  entreatingly  at  me  for 
a  ride  that  I  thought  it  best  to  take  him  in.  We  jogged 
along  down  to  the  speeding  ground,  Guy  as  full  of  play  as 
a  spring  lamb,  and  as  buoyant  as  the  boy  behind  him,  who 
thought  he  was  driving  him,  as  he  had  hold  of  the  lines 
with  me.  The  rain  which  had  fallen  was  not  quite  enough 
to  make  mud  under  the  trees,  and  it  seemed  to  be  about  the 
proper  thing  to  treat  the  boy  and  horse  to  a  little  spin.  They 
were  both  anxious  for  it,  and  when  the  boy  laughed  the  horse 
would  follow  suit  by  shaking  his  head  and  trying  to  get  the 
bit.     To  please  them  was  only  to  please  myself,  and  I  had 


448  LIFE   WITH   THE   TEOTTEES. 

no  sooner  thought  of  it  than  Guy  knew  it  and  was  off. 
Great  Csesar  how  he  went !  And  how  the  sand  and  dirt  did 
fly;  Charlie  crying  "Let  him  go,  pa!"  and  I  suddenly 
finding  out  there  were  three  jobs  on  hand  needing  immedi- 
ate attention.  First,  to  keep  my  eyes  open ;  second,  to 
keep  the  boy  still  and  in  the  cart ;  and  third,  to  stop  the 
horse. 

My  mind  was  occupied  also  with  the  fact  the  cart  might 
break,  and  also  in  figuring  whether  I  could  stoj)  Guy  be- 
fore we  got  to  the  railroad.  To  say  I  was  getting  nervous 
puts  it  mildly — I  was  really  becoming  frightened.  With  a 
good  grip  on  the  boy  with  my  knees,  a  hold  on  Guy  with 
all  my  might,  and  with  eyes  almost  closed  with  the  mud, 
matters  were  getting  desperate.  Guy  was  now  fairly  run- 
ning away,  was  beyond  control,  but  true  to  his  breeding 
still  on  the  trot.  As  we  were  nearing  the  railroad  at 
every  step  the  tension  was  getting  stronger ;  something 
must  be  done.  He  had  the  bit — in  fact  he  had  me.  It 
was  Guy  "cutting  uj)  that  hog,"  not  me.  I  yelled 
"  AVhoa!"  I  tried  to  saw  him  to  a  stop.  I  pulled  so  hard  the 
cart  springs  settled  down  until  Guy  looked  like  a  seven- 
teen-hand  horse.  But  it  was  of  no 'use;  he  was  "out"  in 
earnest. 

As  we  emerged  from  the  shade  of  the  trees  the  mud  was 
thin,  and  it  was  fiying  over  the  cart  like  sliavings  from  a 
planer.  There  was  only  one  more  chance ;  would  he  stop 
from  force  of  habit  or  would  he  go  on  over  the  track  ?  If  he 
goes  over  we  are  gone.  We  are  almost  there.  I  must  try 
something.  I  begin  carefully  to  let  up  on  him  ;  he  hesitates 
a  trifle,  slows  down  gradually,  comes  to  a  walk,  stretches 
out  his  neck  asking  to  let  go  the  bit,  and  we  turn  around  to 
go  back.  We  were  much  in  the  condition  of  the  boy  whom 
the  mule  had  kicked — we  were  not  as  handsome  as  before, 
but  knew  a  good  deal  more.  You  may  safely  guess  I  did 
not  encourage  Guy  to  speed  any  more  that  morning.  We 
walked  back  and  took  a  rest  for  the  balance  of  the  day. 
And  that  was  Charlie' s  last  ride  behind  Guy.     He  often 


LIFE  WITH   THE  TROTTERS.  449 

said  after  tliat  "If  Mr.  Gordon  had  seen  Guy  go  lie  guessed 
lie  would  have  been  proud  of  him." 

To  return  to  our  colt,  who  has  had  a  few  slow  miles  in 
September,  sandwiched  in  with  his  short,  sharp  work,  he 
will  be  fit  and  fine  for  a  good  fast  mile  in  October.  And  if 
you  land  him  a  winner  he  will  be  deserving  of  a  vacation.  The 
Northern  yearling  record  is  2:41f,  and  is  a  good  perform- 
ance. It  is  a  hard  mark  to  beat,  but  with  the  start  you 
have,  and  plenty  of  perseverance,  you  can  reach  it.  The 
colt's  work  should  never  be  severe  enough  to  get  Lim  stale, 
and  always  keep  near  the  shore  in  this  respect;  that  is:  Bet- 
ter do  too  little  than  too  much.  For  if  you  do  too  little  you 
can  remedy  it,  but  if  too  much  the  trouble  can  not  be  re- 
paired the  same  season.  I  have  seen  you  through  the  first 
race  and  about  ready  to  start  at  the  fall  meeting.  Now  as 
you  are  in  good  shai)e,  and  feel  so  confident  of  winning,  I 
will  let  you  go  and  wait  to  hear  the  result;  which  I  trust 
will  be  to  suit  you.  Your  colt  has  so  far  been  handled  with 
good  Judgment  and  the  smallest  details  looked  after  with 
care.  You  feel  well  paid  now,  but  if  you  can  beat  the  rec- 
ord you  may  be  iDroud.  The  successful  training  of  two  and 
three  year  olds  is  conducted  very  much  upon  the  same  gen- 
eral principles.  More  strong  work  iDerhaps  will  be  needed; 
but  avoid  too  much  slow  and  tedious  jogging.  Too  much 
slow  work  is  monotonous,  and  does  not  quickly  reach  the 
point  you  are  after,  which  is  speed.  Recollect  that  2:30  is 
as  fast  as  it  ever  was;  and  it  is  more  satisfaction  to  break, 
handle  and  drive  one  from  the  paddock,  and  "put  him  in  the 
2:20  list,  than  one  that  five  or  six  other  fellows  have  handled 
and  brought  out.  To  do  this  quickly  is  an  important  feat- 
ure, adding  much  to  the  profit  as  well  as  the  pleasure. 
Take  the  case  of  the  bay  mare  Beulah,  broken  in  her  four-year- 
old  form,  at  five  years  started  in  seven  races,  winning  five  of 
them,  and  getting  a  record  of  2: 29 J.  At  six  years  old 
started  in  ten  races,  winning  seven  and  getting  a  record  of 
2:191-.  This  was  not  done  by  long,  severe  work,  but  on  the 
principle  of  short,  quick,  fast  work,  much  after  the  manner 


450         '  LIFE   WITH  THE  TEOTTERS. 

of  working  colts.  The  above  way  of  working  young  things 
has  developed  from  one  farm,  the  past  season,  eight  three- 
year-olds  with  speed  enough  to  beat  2:30,  almost  the  same 
number  at  two  years  that  could  beat  2:40,  and  a  yearling 
with  a  record  of  2:41|.  "There  would  not  be  great  ones  if 
there  were  no  little." 


January  21,  1889. 


Fasiiiox  Stud  Farm,  Trenton,  N.  J. 


2:08^  and  2:15. 


NUTBOURNEii^ELDRIDGE 


NUTBOURNE,  ovit  of  the  dam  of  Maud  S.,  record 

2:08%.    ELDRIDGE,  out  of  the  dam  of 

Majolica,  record  3:15. 


THE  FASHIONABLY-BRED  STALLIONS, 

NUTBOURNE  and  ELDRIDCE, 

WDI  make  the  season  of  1S89  at  my  farm,  ttiree  miles  east  of  Tarrytown,  Westchester  Co.,  N.  Y., 
and  twenty-flve  miles  from  New  York  city.  Several  prominent  Kentucky  breeders  have  urged 
me  to  \ei  Nut  bourne  go  to  that  State,  but  I  have  concluded  to  keep  lum  at  home.  His  full 
brother,  Nutwood,  is  the  only  horse,  living  or  dead,  with  a  7-ecord  under  2:20  having  Jive  of  his 
produce  tvith  records  under  2:30,  thus  showing  his  capacity  to  get  a  high  rate  of  speed.  Be- 
eides,  he  is  the  sire  of  24  in  the  2:30  list,  eight  of  which  were  added  last  year. 

Terms:  For  A^M^towrwe,  $150  for  the  season ;  for   Eldridge,  %\QQ  the  season.     Mares  not 
proving  with  foal  to  either  horse  may  be  reiiirned  the  following  season  free  of  charge. 


NUTBOURNE, 


g.  h.,  16  hands  high,  foaled  1877,  by  Belmont  (sire  of  Nutwood,  record  2:18^),  dam  Miss  Russell, 
the  dam  oi 3Iaud  S.,  record  2:08?^,  by  Pilot,  Jr.,  second  dam  Sallie  Russell,  by  Boston  (thor- 
caghbred),  etc.  As  will  be  seen,  Nutbom-ne  is  not  only  out  of  the  dam  of  Maud  S.,  but  he  is  a 
full  brother  to  Nutwood,  record  2:18J£,  and  Cora  Belmont,  record  2:24}4.  As  a  five-year-old, 
Nutbourne  trotted,  with  very  little  handling,  in  2:21)34,  last  quarterin  3.5  seconds;  but  since  then 
has  not  been  trained,  as  he  has  been  used  exclusively  for  the  stud.  Nufbourne''s  full  brother. 
Nutwood,  is  so  popular  that  his  services  have  been  raised  to  $500.  The  editor  of  the  Turf, 
Field  and  Farm,  in  speaking  of  the  foals  at  my  farm  by  Nutboarne,  says  of  one,  "It  is  a  trotting 
gem  of  the  first  water,"  and  of  another,  "There  is  no  disposition  to  do  anything  but  trot.  I 
never  saw  so  rapid  a  colt  of  its  age." 


ELDRIDGE, 


b.  h.,  1534  hands  high,  foaled  1877,  by  Edward  Everett  (sire  of  Judge  Fullerton,  record  2:18), 
dam  Jessie  Kirk,  dam  of  Majolica,  record  2:15.  Jessie  Kirk  is  by  Clark  Chief,  son  of  Mambrino 
Chief.  Edward  Everett,  the  sire  of  Eldridge.  is  the  sire  of  twelve  trotters  in  the 
2:30  list,  among  them  the  late  Commodore  Vanderbilt's  favorite  road  horse  Mountain  Boy, 
record  2 :20-'.i.  "Eldridge  is  a  grandly  formed  horse,  a  rich  bay,  with  black  points,  and  has  trotted 
atrial  on  inytrack  at  Tarrytown  in  2:20^4.  His  dam  being  the  damof  M  ijolica,  heshouldmake 
a  great  sire.  He  has  sired  only  four  foals,  and  I  sold  one  oftriem— the  two-year-old  colt  Cart- 
ridge,—for  $4,000.  One  of  the  best  judges  in  the  country  says  of  him:  "Eldridge  has  a 
splendid  hock,  and  a  good,  flat  leg— in  fact,  the  best  set  of  legs  I  have  ever  seen;  and  his  re- 
markably loose,  easy  way  of  going  shows  that  he  has  an  elasticity  that  he  can  inapart." 

Mares  sent  to  be  bred  to  Nutbourne  or  Eldridge  can  be  kept  on  Mr.  George  W.  Campbell's 
farm,  just  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  road  from  my  place,  on  reasonable  terms.  Mr.  Campbell 
makes  a  specialty  of  taking  care  of  trotting  stock. 

Address 

ROBERT   BONNER, 

TARRYTOWN,  N.  Y. 

^^  Mares  can  be  sent  to  Tarrytown  by  boat  from  foot  of  Franklin  Street, 
New  York,  or  by  rail  to  Tarrytown,  by  Hudson  Biver  Kailroad,  from  depot  foot 
of  33d  Street  and  lltli  Avenue. 


ALLEN  FARM. 

PITTSFIELD,  BERKSHIRE  COUNTY,  MASSACHUSETTS. 

WILLIAM  RUSSELL  ALLEN,       ------        Proprietor. 

isso. 

STALLIONS    IlSr    SERVICE. 

LANCELOT. 

Bay,  by  Messenger  Duroc,  dam  GREEK  MOUNTAIN  MAID,  the  dam  of 

Elaine,     record 2:20     I  Prospero,  record 2:20 

DameTrot,   "      2:^2       Mansaeld,     "      2:26 

Antonio,        "     2:28i4  |  Miranaa,       "      ....   ...  2:31 

Storm 2 :26>i 

Electioneer  (sire  of  Hinda  Rose,  yearling  record,  2:36'/4;  Sunol,  2-year-old  record,  2:18; 
Hinda  Rose,  3-j'ear-old  record,  2:19X;  Manzanita,  4-year-old  record,  2:16;  Anteco,  2:16>i; 
Adair,  2:17i4;  Bonita,  2:18M.  and  many  others  in  the  2::iO  list. 

YARROW. 

Bay,  by  Lord  Russell,  dam  TOLANDE  (dam  of  Yuba,  2:34  ^4 ,  and  Yazoo,  8:34i4) ,  by  Belmont. 

liORD  RUSSELI,  by  Harold,  and  out  of  MISS  RUSSELI^,  the  dam  of 

MaudS 2:08% 

Nutwood ~:  \S% 

CoraBelmont 2:i4V4 

Nutbourne  (trial) 2:2654 

Mambrino  Russell  (sire  of  Haldane) 2:2654 

Happy  Russell 2:29^ 

TOLANDE'S  dam,  YOUNG  PORTIA,  dam  of 

Voltaire 2:20^4  (sire  of  Bessemer.  2:15) 

Portion 2:35  (sire  of  ]\linnesota,  2:27%) 

Consuela (dam  of  Connaugbt,*  2:24) 

Hymen (4-year-old  record,  2:37) 

Childe  Harold  (2-mile  record  in  England,  5:01) 

•Connaught  is  the  sire  of  Clonmore,  2:29'/4. 

AMERICA. 

Black,  by  Kentucky  Prince  (trial 2:28),  dam  ALMA,  2:283i,  the  Bister  to 

Dexter 2:17=^ 

Astoria 2:29^ 

Dictator  (sire  of  Jay-Eye-See)  2:10 

"       Phallas 2:135^ 

"        Director 2:17 

and  fourteen  others  in  the  2:30  list. 

Second  dam,  Clara,  by  Seely's  American  Star;  3d  dam,  the  McKinstry  mare,  dam  of  Shark. 

Kentucky  Prince,  by  Clark  Chief ,  son  of  Mambrino  Chief  and  first  dam  Kentucky  Queen, 
by  Morgan  Eagle;  2d  dam  by  Blythe's  Whip;  3d  dam,  by  Martin's  Brimmer;  4th  dam,  by 
Quicksilver,  son  of  imp.  Medley. 

Kentucky  Prince  is  the  sire  of  Guy,  2:12;  Spofibrd,  2:183i;  Bayonne  Prince,  2:21  J4;  Com- 
pany, 2:193^;  Compeer,  2:25-4;  Problem, 2 :34J4  Sweepstakes,  2:24^^,  tt  al. 


ALLEN  FAR 


BROOD   MARES 

Are  the  immediate  descendants  of  the  greatest  ot  producing  Sires  and  DAMS. 

RUSINA,  by  Belmont,  out  of  MISS  RUSSELL,  the  dam  of  MAUD  S.,  2:083^. 

MAtTDLEN,  2:25^,  by  Harold,  out  of  NUTULA,  the  sister  of  NUTWOOD,  2:18M. 

ELISTA,  by  Messenger  Duroc,  out  of  GKEEN  MOUNTAIN  MAID,  the  dam  of  ELEC- 
TIONEER. 

MALVASIA,  by  Lord  Russell,  out  of  MALMAISON,  the  dam  of  MANETTE,  trial  2:16^. 

ASHIMA,  by  Lord  Russell,  out  of  ALICE  WEST,  2:26,  the  dam  of  ALTABIURA,  2:30. 

SALVE,  by  Lord  Russell,  out  of  NOONDAY,  2d  dam  Midnight,  dam  of  JAT-EYE-SEE,  2:10. 

RUBRA,  by  Lord  Russell,  out  of  PRIMROSE,  dam  of  Princeps,  sire  of  TRINKET,  2:14. 

ESPERENCE,  by  Harold,  out  of  ENGLEWOOD,  the  sister  of  WEDGEWOOD,  2:19. 

SUN  MAID,  by  Belmont,  out  of  SONNET,  2d  dam  LITTLE  IDA,  dam  of  SO  SO,  2:17}^. 

WATERLEAP,  by  Belmont,  out  of  WATER  LILY,  3d  dam  WATERWITCH,  dam  of 

Viking.  2:19i4- 

EDITA,  by  Kentucky  Prince,  out  of  ELISE,  sister  to  ELAINE,  2:23. 

MIRELLA,  by  Kentucky  Prince,  out  of  MIRANDA,  2:31,  the  sister  to  PROSPERO,2:20. 

BRENDA,    by  Kentucky  Prince,   out    of    MISS    BRUNETTE,   the    dam    of    BLACK 
PRINCE,  2:25/2. 

FEDORA,  by  Kentucky  Prince,  out  of  CASSANDRA,  the  sister  of  HOGARTH,  2:26. 

NYDI.Il,  by  Kentucky  Prince,  out  of  CAMILLE,  the  dam  of  STEVIE,  2:29>4. 

ALFARETTA,  by  Kentucky  Prince,  out  of  BETTY,  2d  dam  LADY  FALLIS,  dam  of 
KISBER,  2:2714. 

GUYDA,  by  Messenger  Duroc,  out  of  LESLIE,  the  sister  of  GUY,  2:12. 

PHALLAMONT  GIRL,  2:S0,  by  Phallamont,  out  of  POCAHONTAS  GIRL,  the  sister 
of  HIGHLAND  MAID,  2:2934. 

POKIE    PHALMONT.  by  Phallamont,  out  of  POCAHONTAS  GIRL,   the  sister   of 
HIGHLAND  MAID,  2:291,4. 

LAURA  PHALMONT,  by  Phallamont,  out  of  LADY  ELDREDGE,  trial  2:26. 

LIZZIE  PHALMONT,  by  Phallamont,  out  of  DAISY  McK.,  trial  2:3414. 

REPOSE,  by  Conway,  2:182i  (pace),  out  of  TULIP,  dam  of  ULVA,  2:27. 

PRINCESS  ROYAL,  by  Phallas,  2:135^,  out  of  HERMIA,  2d  dam  HAIDEE. 

MARIANA,  by  Sorrento  (son  of  Woodford  Mambrino,  2:21/2),  out  of  MARY  "WHITMAN, 
2d  dam  NANCY  WHITMAN,  the  dam  of  ROBT.  McGREGOR,  2:17^. 

EARLY  DAY,  by  Erelong,  by  Belmont,  out  of  LOTTIE  MORGAN. 

LOUISE,  by  Merchant,  by  Belmont,  out  of  Pansy,  by  a  son  of  HAMBLBTONIAN,  10. 

CLOISTER,  by  Chichester,  2:25M,  out  of  CRACOVIENNE,  gr.  dam  of  KENILWORTH, 

2:1814. 

MICA,  by  Chichester,  2:2534,  Out  of  MARY  BELLE,  dam  of  PUELLA,  2:29. 
MINTAKA,  bv  Chichester,  2:25i4,  out  of   MINNA  AVILKES,  sister  of  KENTUCKY 

WILKES,  2:21  J4- 
VENEZUELA,  by  Chichester,  2:25i4,  out  of  VASSAR,  gr.  dam  of  ED  ROSEWATER 

(pace),  2:20/2. 

MARIOLA,  by  Chichester,  2:2534,  out  of  MARA,  2d  dam  Mary,  dam  of  DICK  MOORB, 
2:22/a. 


THE  HERMITAGE  STUD 


STALLIONS   IN   USE: 
WEDGE  WOOD  692.    Service  Fee,  $150.00. 

The  Great  Race  Horse  and  Sire— Record  2:19  Fourth  Heat. 
Sire  of  Favonia  2:15  fifth  heat,  Conway  2:18J^,  Connaught  2:21  (eireof  Clonmore  (3)  2:29>4), 
Nugget  2:26?:^  (sire  of  Nettleleaf  (4)  2:23i^,  Goldleaf  2:23i4,  and  Newton  (4)  2:28),  Ulva2:27, 
Jesuit  2:32^2,  Pagan  2:37,  Mersburg  2:40,  Mayenne  (dam  of  Crescendo  2:24),  Pluto  (sire  of  Blue- 
wing  (4)  2:27) ,  and  Abbess  (dam  of  Brandoline  (2)  2:30!^) .  This  showing  from  not  more  than 
fourteen  living  foals  in  Kentucliy. 


BONNIE  WOOD,  ^3%V'  Service  Fee,  $75.00. 

Brother  to  Nutbreaker  (3)  2:2]3:^. 
Bay,  foaled  in  '85,  by  Nutwood,  first  dam  Bonnie  Doon  by  Aberdeen,  gr.  dam  Ariel  by 
Ethel  Allen. 


CANDIDATE,  '^'^ri^'  Service  Fee,  $75.00. 

Black,  foaled  in  '85,  by  Electioneer,  first  dam  Nora  by  Messenger  Duroc,  gr.  dam  Mary 
Hnlse  by  American  Star. 


PONCE  DE  LEON,  Private  Stallion. 

Black,  foaled  in  '87,  by  Pancoast,  first  dam  Elvira  (4)   2:18V4,  sister  to  Beatrice  dam  of 
Patron,  gr.  dam  Mary  Mambrino  by  Mambrino  Patchen. 


BOW  BELLS 

(Brother  to  Bell  Boy) , 

Bay,  foaled  in  1887  by  Electioneer,  dam  Beautiful  Bells.  Bow  Bells  is  being  handled  this 
year  in  California,  but  will  be  brought  over  and  placed  in  the  stud  in  1890. 

Well-bred  daughters  of  Harold,  Geo.  Wilkes,  Electioneer,  Mambrino  Patchen,  and  other 
sons  of  Rysdyk's  Hambletonian  and  Mambrino  Chief  are  to  be  found  among  our  brood  mares. 

TEilMS. — The  usual  privilere  of  return  the  next  year  if  mare  proves  not  in  foal.  Grass 
and  attention  during  season  at  $3 .00  per  month.    Grain  fed  at  $8.00  per  month. 

Catalogues  M'ill  be  issued  in  the  early  Spring,  when  we  will  be  glad  to  furnish  applicants. 

The  farm  is  five  miles  souyi  of  Nashville,  and  can  be  reached  either  by  Franklin  Pike, 
Nashville  &  Decatur  Railroad,  or  by  the  Overland  Dummy  Line. 

A^^«««  MAY  OVERTON,  Manager, 

Box  8,  Nashville,  Tenn. 


ROCK  RIVER 

STOCK    FARM 

DIXON,  ILL. 

Western  Home  of  the  Morgans. 

MORTIMER  McROBERTS,  Proprietor. 


r^ENTLEMAN'S 

FINE  ROAD  AND  DRIVING  HORSES 


Horses  Bred  from  Mares  of  Different  Trotting 

Families  by  Stallions  of  the  Morgan, 

Hambletonian,  and  Mambrino 

Chief  Strains. 


SINGLE  HORSES  AND  MATCHED  TEAMS  ALWAYS  QN  HAND. 


Chicago  Office,  I  15  Lake  Street, 

WHERE  ALL  COMMUNICATIONS  SHOULD  BE  ADDRESSED. 


The  ONLY 
EXCLUSIVE 


ESTABLISHED  r854. 


TOOBffiEY  ^5c  CO., 

CANAL  DOVER,  OHIO. 


TRACK  VEHICLE  BUILDERS  u 


in  the 
nited  States 


Truss  Axle  Suiky. 


This  Sulky  holds  an 
envious  position,  and 
Is  already  so  favorably 
known,  that  we  deem 
comment  unnecessary. 
For  a  Contested  Race, 
fo!  a  Match  llace,  or  for 
aLow  Record  thcTRUSS 
AXLE  SULKY  has  no 
superior.  Made  in  five 
sizes,  from  38  to  58  lbs. 

Send  for  full  descrip- 
tion of  Truss  Axle  and 
Training  Sulkies. 


Patent  April      6,  1881. 

"         March    4,  1884. 

"         July      2t,  1886. 

"         Oet.        18,  18><6. 

"  July  13,  188?. 
We  also  Imld  all  patents  on 
trussed  orfluted  Axles,  Shafts 
either  trussed  or  diagonally 
rounded,  also  trussed-raised 
Cross-bars,  and  other  im- 
provements. 


REFERENCES. 


John  Splan, 

Ohio. 
W.  H.  McCarthy, 

Kentucky. 
O.  A.  Hickok, 

California. 
Ed.  F.  Geers. 

Tennessee. 
Peter  V.  Johnson. 

Michigan. 
A.  J.  Feck, 

New  York. 
J.  H.  Goldsmifh, 

New  York. 
S.  L.  Caton, 

California. 
Geo.  J.  Fuller, 

Ohio. 
W.  H.  Crawford, 

Kentucky. 
Millard  Sanders. 

Ohio. 
And  many  others. 


OUR    IMPROVED    SKELETON    WAGON 


PATENT  APPLIED  FOR. 


We  beg  to  call  the  attention  of  Breeders,  Trainers,  and  Drivers  to  the  above  cut,  which  represents 
our  latest  improved  Skeleton  Wagon. 

For  a  number  of  years  past  the  ROAD  Cart  has  been  used  as  the  principle  vehicle  for  speeding 
and  jogging  the  trotter,  and  upon  its  introduction  was  considere^d  a  very  good  thing  for  that  purpose, 
but  its  use  has  failed  to  verify  this  fact,  as  tlie  cart  is  being  discarded  and  is  fast  growing  into  dis- 
favor on  account  of  its  absolute  tendency  to  ruin  the  pnreness  of  gait  of  the  trotter,  which  tendency 
is  due  to  that  peculiar  bobbing  motion  and  weight  on  the  horse's  back,  which  is  wholy  unavoidable 
in  the  road  cart,  no  matter  who  makes  it;  therefore,  the  SKELETON  WAGON,  which  was  laid  aside, 
upon  the  introduction  of  the  cart,  has  again  become  (with  more  favor  than  ever),  the  principle 
vehicle  for  jogging,  training,  speeding,  and  gaiting  the  trotting  horse.  The  principle  <  bjection  to 
all  other  Skeleton  Wagons  is  the  low  side  bar,  which  prevents  a  snort  turn,  and  is  the  cause  of  bend- 
ing or  breaking  spindles  and  severe  accidents.  It  will  be  seen  by  the  above  cut,  with  our  high  arch 
bar,  a  very  short  turn  can  be  made,  which  is  very  esscnti.al,  as  it  obviates  the  breaking  of  wheels  and 
spindles,  and  avoids  accidents.  The  general  construction  of  this  wagon  is  such  asto  prevent  the 
spreading  of  wheels  when  under  full  speed.  Can  also  be  mads  much  lighter  than  on  any  other  con- 
struction; therefore  for  jogging,  for  speeding,  or  forgetting  aconspicuous  view  of  tlie  gait  of  your 
horse,  the  Skeleton  Wagon,  as  now  improved  by  us,  will  fill  a  long-felt  want.  Made  in  all  sizes, 
from  65  lbs.  up.    SEND  FOR  FULL  DESCRIPTION. 


S.  TOOMEY  &  CO., 

Canal  Dover,  Ohio,  U.  S.  A. 


WOODBURN  FARM. 

TROTTI^^G^    STALLIONS. 


Sire  of  NUTWOOD,  2:18?^;  WEDGEWOOD,  2:19,  etc. 


Sire  of  MAUD  S.,  2:0&i4;  NOONTIDE,  2:2014,  etc. 


LORD    RUSSELL, 

Brotlier  to  Maud  S.,  2:08;'4. 


KING  WILKES, 

Record 2:22>/i  (sire  of  Oliver  K.,  record  2:l(;i.i),  'ly  GEORGE  WILKES,  2:22. 


PISTACHIO, 

Brother  to  Nutwood,  2:18^. 


RE-ELECTION, 

(Foaled  1888) 
By  EliECTIONEEK,  dam  t,ADY  KUSSELL,  sister  to  MAUD  S.,  2:08?^. 


Woodburn  Farm  is  tlic  birtliplace  of  Maud  S.,  2:0S?4;  Nutwood,  2:18J£;  Wedgewood,  2:19; 
Payonia,  2:15;  Conway,  2:18^;  Viking,  2: 19J4;  Mambriuo  Dudley,  2:19 J£;  Miss  Russell  (dam 
of  Maud  S.,  2:0S3|);  Midnight  (dam  of  Jay-Eye-See,  2:10),  and  many  other  great  horses. 


THE  THOROUGHBRED  DEPARTMENT 

EMBRACES  THE  STALLIONS, 

KING  ALFONSO,     FALSETTO, 
LISBON,  PAT  MALOY. 

POWHATTAN, 

AND  EIGHTY-THREE  BROOD  MARES. 

For  Catalogues  address 

A.  J.  ALEXANDER, 
L.  BRODHEAD,  Agent.  Spring  Station,  Woodford  Co.,  Ky. 


Season  1889. 


Season  1889. 


JEWETT  STOCK  FARM. 


HOME    OF 


JEROME  EDDY  1260. 

Record,  Q-.iev^. 

Bay  horse,  black  points,  15. .J  hands  hitth;  weight,  1,175  pounds. 

Sired  by  Louis  Napoleon  :i07. 

Son  of  Volunteer  .5.5  (sire  of  St.  Juliea,  2:11^)  and  Hattie  Wood  (dan  of  Gazelle  2-20 

bireof  Jerome  Eddy,  2 :16V4;  Cbas.  Eilton,  2:17!/2;  Spinnella,  2;21%: 

and  five  others  in  2:30  or  better. 


Noble  (sire  of  Harry  Noble,  2:26). 
2d  dam. 

3d  dam. 

4th  dam. 


By  Alexander's  Abdallah  15,  sire  of  the  dams 
of  Favonia.  2:15,  and  twenty-three  others 
iu  2:30  or  better. 


By  Burr's  Napoleon,  sire  of  Rhode  Island,  2:35 

in  1851. 
By  Long  Island  Black  Hawk  21,  sire  of  Prince. 

2:21!^. 
By  imp.  Trustee. 


Terms,  9'iOO,  due  at  time  of  service,  with  the  usual  privilege  of  return. 


SHERMAN    1506. 


Kecord,  2:2'iH. 
Brown  horse,  16  hands  in  height;  weight,  1,200  pounds 
Sire  George  Wilkes  519,  sire  of 

Harry  AVllkes 2:135^ 

Guy  Wilkes 2:15i| 

And  sixty-two  others  in  2:30 


1st  dam  by  Belmont  64,  sire  of 

Nutwood ,  .  2:18J 

Wedgewood 2:19 

And  eighteen  others  In 2:30 


Terms.  $1U0,  payable  Aprillst,  1890,  with  the  usual  privilege  of  return. 


CORONET   1035. 


Brother  in  blood  to  Ambassador,  2:21^. 
Bay  horse,  15  2  hands  In  height;  weight,  1,100  pounds. 
Sire  George  Wilkes  519   sire  of  i    ist  clam,  by  American  Clay  3-1,  sire  of  the 

Ihxrty-two  sons  that  have  produced  dams  of  sixteen  in  2:30,  or  better. 

performers  with  records  of    2:30       |    2d  dam,  by  Mambrlno  Chief  11,  dam  of 

And  the  dams  of  twelve  in  2:30,  or  better.        |  AUie  West 2:25 

Terms,  S50,  payable  April  1st,  1890,  with  the  usual  privilege  of  return. 


HOMER    1235. 


Sire  of  Lelah  H.  (at  4  years)  2:24!4. 
Own  brother  to  the  dam  of  Baron  Wilkes,  3:18. 
Brown  horse,  15.2^  hands  in  height;  weight,  1,'201  pounds. 
Sire  Mambrino  Patchen  58,  sire  of 

London 2:205^ 

And  sixteen  others  in 2:S0 

And  the  dams  of  twenty-eight  from 

2:1514  to  2:30 


Ist  dam  Sally  Chorister,  dam  of 

Proteine  2-18 

Belle  Brassfield  (dam  of  Holstein).'.  2:20 

Ad  Miration  (trial) 2-26 

Belle  Patclien  (da  n  of  Baron  Wilkes, 

2:18) 2:.30;<i 

Terms,  SlOO,  payable  April  1st,  1890,  vrith  the  usual  privilege  of  return 


FIELDMONT  5050. 


2:26 


Own  brother  to  Almont,  Jr.,  2:26. 
Bay  horse,  15  3  hands  in  he'ght;  weight,  1,175  pounds. 
Sire  Al in ont^33.  sire  of  ,    igt  dam  Maggie  Gaines  dam  of 

Fanny  Witherspoon.... 2:1614  Almont,  Jr.  (sire  of  eight  in  2:30). 

And  thirty-four  others  in 2:Sj       |  AUie  Gaines  (sire  of  two  in  2:.30). 

Terms,  $50,  payable  April  Ist,  1890,  with  the  usual  privilege  of  return. 
The  Jewett  Stock  Farm  is  situated  two  and  one-quarter  miles  west  of  East  Aurora  Station 
sixteen  miles  from  BufEalo,  N.  Y.,  on  the  Wesicrn  New  York  &  Pounsylvaida  Kailroad. 

HENRY  C.  JEWETT  &  CO., 
Post  Oflfice  address,  BufTalo  or  Willink,  Erie  Co.,  N.  Y. 


J.  H.  FENTON, 

M.VXUFACXrKER    OF 

Fine  Track  and  Road  Harness 

SWEAT,  COOLING,  WORKING,  and  WALKING  SUITS. 

THE  BEST  AND  ONLY  PRACTICAL 

TOE  WEIGHTS,  HORSE  BOOTS 

IN"    THE    IMA-RKEX, 

And  appliances  of  every  description  used  in 

EDUCATING  THE   TROTTING  HORSE. 


THIS  LEADING 

HORSE    QOODS    FIVIPORIUM 

Has  facilities  for  manufacturing  unequaled  by  any  other  house  in 

AMERICA, 

And  makes  intricate  and  practical  TIORSE  APPLIANCES  A   SPECIALTY. 


WE  ARE  AGENTS  FOR  THE  C:c3LEBRATED 

TOOMEY  AND  CAFFREY  SULKIES 

ALSO 

JOGGING  AND  BREAKING  CARTS. 
Send  for  Catalogue  to 

J.  H.  FENTON, 

211  &  2  I  3  Wabash  Avenue,  CHICAGO,  ILL. 


DR.  ROB[RG['S  Him  HOOF  [XPiNDER 

Which  Cures  Corns,  Contractions,  Quarter-Cracks,  Etc. 


a  contracted  foot  or  keeping  a  sound  foot  in  its 


It  is  the  best  invention  for  expandini 
natural  shape.  '  -     _  ...  „^ 

as  H^^S^Ste^S  W^--S^e,oi^-he^^^ 

for  the  other  foot  bv  return  of  S^  I  win  ZV  «n  ^  T^H""-  ^'''^"'  "^'^  «"°f'i'^''-  Expander 
pairs  for  my  own  hbrses  as  <=oon  as  I  c  iiTn  il-e  dit^r^.^.'^''  /  h  ^" /^f  ortraent.  I  want  a  dozen 
by  me  is  unnecessary,  asl  anxcol^^.i'n^ceSyZrl^Serkntu^'fhem^^ 

"Yours,  J.W.McCUE." 

"Dr.  p.  p.  Roberge,  1,741  Bboadwat  N   V  •  "Opf;ice  of  De.  H  D.  Brown, 

"Dear  Sir:  Inclost4  find  «o  7or  '  m.^  c     ^  Potsdam,  N.  Y.,  March  14,  1887. 

inclosed  diafframs,  No.  1  and  No  2  Nn^  tL^.h"'^  °"f  P?.""  °^  yo^r  Hoof  Expanders  for  the 
my  other  colt  by  ukn°thrFxDaAd»r.^or^P.f..V'°''  ^"^  show  you  the  improvement  made  in 
more  in  a  short  lime  f7,r  a  frtlnd  of  mine  wh^h^'  ^°''  !2™?  ^^^^'^  '"''"^'^^  ^'"^e.  I  shall  order 
greatest  boon  for  contri^tSet  iX^\w  hf  f^Ttl^'' ''^P'"^^™^?^-.  '  t"^'""^'  ^^^y  are  the 
you  would  be  made  a  hero  at  once  '  *^  """'^  °"^-    ^'  ^°''«^«  '^""•^  o^'y  talk 

'  Yours  respectfully,  n.  D.  BROWN." 


One  Pair,  $2. 


Three  Pairs,  $5. 


F.  P.  ROBERGE,  Veterinary  Surgeon, 

l,74(    BROADWAY,  NEW  YORK  CITY. 


^"Liberal  discount  to  the  trade. 
and  Hardware  Merchants. 


They  are  kept  by  all  first-class   Horseshoers,  Saddle 


Kalamazoo  Farm  Stallions 


iMBissiDon  \m 

Record  :2:dli^,  trial  2:18. 

By  GEORGE  WILKES,  dam  Lady  Carr 
(the  dam  of  Alcandru,  2:26J4,  and  three 
more  that  can  beat  2:30),  by  American 
Clay  34. 

SIRE  OP  Record. 

Lady  Wilkin 2:151^ 

Hy  Wilkes,  trial  2:12!4 2:20 

Embassador,  trial  2:21 2:25 

Black  Ambassador 2:25 

Sciota  Girl,  four-year-old  trial  2 :21 . . .  2  ■.29)^, 

Napoleon  Belle,  trial  2 :25 2 :32]4 

Keokee,  four-year-old  trial  2:26..     ..  2:32'/4 
Wyandotte,    two   years   and   eleven 

months  old  2:32^ 

Embassy,  three  years  old 2:50 

Nellie,  three  years  old 2 :5o 

Pontoosuc,  trial  2:31 2:39^ 

Raphael    WOkes,    two-year-old  trial 

2:41 2:501^ 

Lucy  W.,  trial  2:2314 2:50 

Joe  Wilkes,  to  wagon,  fourth  heat..  2:40 

And  nine  more  with  trials  this   year  of 
i'rom2:41!4  to  2:25. 

Limited   to  Thirty   Mares    at 
$i50  the  Season. 


WARLOCK  3376 

Trial,  a  mile  in  2::38  on  half-mile  track; 
quarter  in  36  seconds,  the  seventeenth 
time  in  harness. 

By    BELMONT  64,  dam  Waterwitch  by 

Pilot,  Jr.  12,  the 

DAM  OP  Record. 

Viking,  brother  to  Warlock  2:19^ 

Manibrino  Gift,  sire  of  six  in  2:30  or 

better 2:20 

Scotland 2:22VC 

Wavelet,  sister  to  Warlock 2:24}^ 

Waterloo,  brother  to  Warlock 2:28 

Warder,  brother    to   Wailock,  trial 

2-29'/j 2:3^ 

Fairy  Belle  (dam  of  Nymphia,  2:2fi3^; 

Elf  King,  2:30'/3,   and  Fairy  Gift, 

2 :29^) ,  sister  to  Warlock 

Peri  (dam  of  Alice  Tyler,  2:30,  and 

General  Hancock) 

Sprite  (dam  of  Sphinx,  2:23;  Spry, 

trial     2:20,     four-year-old     record 

2:28^),  sister  to  Warlock 

Naiad  ^sister  to  Warlock) ,  trial  2:30^^' 
Undine,  trial  2:27 2:35V4 

Limited  to  Twenty  Mares  at 
$IOO  the  Season. 


EMPIRE    2378 


(Matinee  record  2:35),  by  MAMBRINO  PATCHEN  58,  dam  Favorite,  record  2:34,  the 
dam  of  Favorite  Wilkes,  2 :25i^,  and  three  more,  including  Bourbon  Wilkes,  that  could' beat 
2:30.     Sire  of  Eminence,  four-year-old  record  2:2114,  and  others  quite  promising. 

Stands  at  $25  the  Season. 

Our  brood  mares  all  trace  to  producing  dams;  are  speed  producers,  or  have  records  of  2:30 
to  2:1914,  or  have  a  dam  or  grand  dam  that  have  produced  one  or  more  2:30  or  better  trotters, 
and  are  by  fashionable  and  speed-producing  sires  of  a  high  order.  We  are  breeding  REAL 
trotters  and  campaigners,  and  our  stable  of  young  trotters  won  more  races,  and  we  put  more  in 
the  2:30  list  in  1887,  than  any  other  stock  farm  ever  did  iu  one  .season. 


Young  Stock  for  Sale,  and  at  Reasonable  Prices,  considering 
the  High  Standard  of  breeding  and  individual  excellence. 

For  Catalogues,  Prices,  or  other  information,  address 

S.  A.  BROWNE  &  CO., 

Kalamazoo,  Mich. 


GORDON  GLEN  STOCK  FARM 

W.  J.  GORDON,  Proprietor, 

CLEVELAND,  OHIO. 


STALLIONS  IN  STUD 

CLINGSTONE  2d 


(Full  brother  to  Clingstone,  'J:l  Ij . 


RYSDYK  653, 

Sire  of  Clingstone,  2:14,  and  four  others  in  the  2:30  list. 

THOMAS  RYSDYK, 

By  Rysdyk,  dam  Largesse,  2:25. 

JOSIAH  A., 

By  Clingstone  2d,  dam  Miss  Wilkes,  2:29,  by  Geo.  Wilkes. 

THE 

BROOD  MARES 

Are  Standard,  amon?  them  being 

2:17. 

liSOlTTZlTSi,  ZiAUGSSSS,  ETC. 

2:23  1-4.  2:25. 

SEND    FOR    OATALOG^UE. 


ASHLAND 


STALLIONS    IN    USE: 


DICTATOR: 

Sire  of  Jay-Eye-See,  2:10, 
Phallas,  2:i3,^i, 
Director,  2:17,  etc. 


KING  RENE: 

Sire  of  Fugue,  2:1934, 

Prince  Edward,  2:24^^, 
Sarcenet,  2:251!,  etc. 


Colts  and  Fillies  by  DICTATOR  and  KING  RENE  out  of 
superbly  bred  mares  by  George  Wilkes,  Volunteer,  Belmont, 
Harold,  Mambrino  Patchen,  Princeps,  Cuyler,  etc.,  for  sale. 

Catalogues  sent  on  application. 

H.  c.  Mcdowell  &  son, 

Lexington,  Ky. 

John  E.  Madden 

Breeder  of  and   Dealer   in 


HIGrH-BREID 


TNG 


STOCK. 


LEXINGTON,  KENTUCKY 


MESSENGER    DUROC    I06. 

Bay,  16  hands,  sire  of  fil'tecn  tiottrrs  with  records  ranging  from  2:20  to  2:30;  also  sire  of  the 
dams  of  ten  with  records  ranging  from  2:20  to  2:.j0. 

KENTUCKY    PRINCE    2470. 

Bay,  15.3  hands;  sire  of  eleven  with  records  ranging  from  2:12  to  2:30;  also  sire  of  the  dams 
of  Saxon,  2:38;  A.  A.  Bonner's  horse,  trial  2:20J4;  and  C.  A.  Pond's  horse,  trial  2:2214. 

LELAND    1300. 

Brown.  16  hands;  sire  of  Miss  Leland,  2:25^;  and  Haides,  2:27 ?i;  out  of  the  first  five  foals 
he  Bired.     The  next  year  he  sired  Clara,  2 :21. 

MANSFIELD    1358. 

Chestnut,  15.3  hands;  record  2:20;  sire  of  Fnxie,  2:2S'4:  and  out  of  Green  Mountain  Maid, 
dam  of  six  in  the  2:.30  list.  Mansfield  is  a  brother  of  Elaine,  dam  of  Norlaine,  that  has  the 
fastest  yearling  record,  2:31^. 

ANTONIO  2823. 

Bay,  15.1  hands;  record  2:2894;  full  brother  of  Mansfield  and  Elaine. 

HOWLAND  2832. 

Brown,  15.3  hands;  brother  in  blood  to  Guy,  2:12,  and  Fred.  Folger,  2:20Jf  • 

PRINCE    GEORGE   2948. 

Bay,  15.2  hands;  by  Kentucky  Prince,  out  of  Lady  Dexter,  sister  of  Dexter,  2:17)4. 

NEWBOLD   5080. 

Black,  15.3  hands;  by  Kentucky  Prir.oe,  dam  Alma.  2:28Ji,  sister  of  Dexter,  2:17^i. 

MELVILLE    5079. 

Chestnut,  13  hands;  by  Kentucky  Prince,  out  of  a  sister  of  Leland. 

CHARLES  BACKMAN, 

Stony  Ford  P.  O.,  Orange  Co.,  N.  Y. 


HARRISON  ARMS, 

President. 


H.  G.  ALLEX, 

Manager. 


W.  A.  YAGER, 

Sec"v  and  Treas. 


The  Arms  Palace  Horse  Car  Co. 

General  Offices,  "The  Rookery," 

CHICAGO,       -       -       -        ILLINOIS. 


The  above  is  a  cut  of  our  new  Special  Car,  built  expressly  for  the  cam- 
paigning of  racing  stables,  and  to  which  we  desire  to  call  attention. 

This  car  is  vastly  different  from  our  regular  line  cars,  and  is  only  leased 
for  the  season.    Send  for  descript  ve  and  fully  illustrated  pamphlet. 


WATERS    STOCK    FARM. 

TROTTING  STOCK.  GENOA  JUNCTION,  WIS. 

SXAT.LIONS    IN    SERVICE: 

niiirnntiii    /no      ^    ^^  sultan  isis;  dam  minnehaha.  He 

LiAl  IrllnlilA    ALIiIZ  1  was  nevertrained,  but  in  his  jog!;ingsho\vspromise  of  great 

wnkii  uiiiiin    Tiwfci  ^  ppeed.    His  oldest  colts,  foaled  m  1887,  are  promising.    He 

Bay,  black  jwints,  16  hands,  |  j^  ,„ii  brother  to  Alcazar,  2:23;  Sweetheart,  2:22'/2;  Eva, 

1,185  lbs.     loaled,  1882.  |^  2:23'/2,  and  half  brother  to  Beautiful  Bells. 

NUTMEG     2^59  l       by  nutwood  eoo;  dams  American  Clay  34;   Carr's 

11  u  I  iiiku     ^TWWi  ^   Lexington,  and  thoroughbred.    One  of  the  very  best  sons 

Three-year-old  record, 2:33Ji  of  Nutwood.    His  colts  are  individually  excellent  and  speed- 

Five-year-old  record 2:2.5  |  promising. 

Chestnut,  foaled  in  1883.  L 

FRFIflNfl    I  lAI  I       I*"^    BEL.MONT    64;    dams    Woodford,    Mambrino, 

LIILLUIIU    I  I  "Til  I   Hambletonian   (Rysdyks),   and  American  Star.    His  first 

Bay,    black   points.    Foaled,  i  t^ree  dams  are  proclucina:  dams.    He  is  full  brother  to 
1878;  sire  of  Solong,  2:27i,  Fan-        j^;^!,,  2;a7'4;  half  brother  to  Evermond,  2:241. 

nette,  3yrs.,2:32.  [ 

There  are  also  :  SPRAGUE  PILOT  2458  ;  Record,  2:24;  by  Gov.  Sprague444,  dam  by 
Pilot  Temple,  son  of  Pilot,  Jr.,  12  ;  2d  dam  by  Ole  Bull,  3d  Imp.  Glencoe,  and  to  13th  dam 
thoroughbred. 

TACKS  4664;  Record,  3  yrs.,  2:47;  by  Egbert  1136,  dam  by  Howard's  Mambrino,  son  oi 
Mambrino  Chief  11;  2d  by  John  Innis,  pacer. 

THE  BROOD  MARES  on  the  Farm  are  richly  and  fashionably  bred,  mostly  yonnc", 
all  vigorous  and  sound,  and  o''  great  individual  merit.  Young  Stock,  and  Mares  in  Foal, 
for  sale.  Send  for  Catalosne  giving  description  and  pedigrees,  and  arranged 
■o  as  to  be  valuable  as  a  book  of  reference.    Address 

WATERS  STOCK  FARM,  Genoa  Junction,  Wis. 


WILKES  LODGE, 

Near  Lexington,  Ky. 
ITS  FoxxrerDATioN  stones: 

BREEDING, 

SOUNDNESS, 

SPEED,  SENSE, 

and  COURAGE. 

The  Hambletonian  Family  •  and  •  George  Wilkes  Brancli 

ITS  i>zTmJ:mI%.t<.s. 


Young  trotting  stock,  out  of  standard-bred  mares,  and  by  Lord    RtlSSell,    Pan- 

coast,  Florida,  Jay  Gould,  Jay  Bird,  Ferguson,  Monte  Cristo, 
Sultan,   Robert    McGregor,   Socrates,    Director,    and    Dictator 

FOR  SALE    AT  REASONABLE   PRICKS. 

For  catalogues  or  information  address 

(191)  Z.  E.  SIMMONS,  Lexington,  Ky. 


FRAZIER 

ROAD-CARTS. 

25  STYLES  OF  CARTS. 


Breaking  Carts. 

Speeding  Carts. 
Physicians'  Carts. 

Pole  Carts. 
Business  Carts. 

Ladies'  Carts. 
Pony  Carts. 

THE  ORIGINAL 

ROAD-CART. 

THE  LEADING 

ROAD-CART. 


ROAD  WAGONS. 
SKELETON    WAGONS. 

WRITE  FOR  ILLUSTRATED  CATALOGUE. 

Chicago  Repository,  373  Wabasii   Avenue. 

Address 

W.  S.  FRAZIER  &  CO., 
AURORA,       -       -        -        -        ILLINOIS. 


the:    I^EiA.DIN'G 

HORSE  OWNERS,  DRIVERS,  AND  BREEDERS 


IN  THE  COUNTRY  ENDOESE 


T 


As  the  best  and  only  preparation  that  will  do  all  that  is  claimed  for  it 
in  preventing  and  curing  ailments  of  the  feet,  such  as 

Corns,  Quarter  Cracks,  Brittle,  Contracted,  Sore,  Tender  7eet,  etc. 


IT  SAVES  ALL  PACKING  AND  SOAKING. 

Keeps  the  feet  in   better  condition  with   less  time,  labor  and 
money,   and   gives   better  results  than  can   be 
obtained   in  any  other  way. 


Sold  by  all  dealers,  with  a  guarantee  to  give  satisfaction  or  money 
refunded.     TRY  IT.     Send  for  testimonials,  etc. 

JAS.   B.  CAMPBELL   &  CO. 

Proprietor*  and  Manufacturers, 
126  Fifth  Avenue,  -  .  -  CHICAGO,  ILL, 


HOW  THE  WINNERS  ARE  BRED! 

If  you  wish  to  study  the  question  of 

The  Successful  Breeding  of  the  Trotting  Horse, 

You  can  not  afford  to  be  without 

THE  BREEDER'S  GAZETTE 

The  Great  "All  'round"  Live-Stock  Journal  of  the  day. 

IMPARTIAL,  THOROUGH,  AND   RELIABLE. 

Its  discussions  of  blood  lines,  as  applied  to  the  production  of  speed,  are 

conceded  to  be  the  clearest  and  most  valuable  now 

appearing  in  the  American  Press. 

Turf  Department  in  Charge  of  Mr.  H.T.  While. 

The  editor  ol  this  volume — "Life  Among  the  Trotters." 

pW^  TERMS  :    Single  Subscription,  $3.00  per  annum  ;    Two   Subscriptions, 
remitted  together,  S'S.OO  each.    24  to  28  pages  weekly.    Send  stamp  for  specimen  copy. 


Address, 


J.    H.   SANDERS    PUBLISHING    CO., 

326  La  Salle  Street,  Chicago,  111. 


6ILES  BRO.  &  CO. 

waiGii  inaKeis 

AND 

Jettis. 

Sporting  Watches 

A  SPECIALTY. 

A  complete  assortiueiit  of  fine  and  com- 
plic-iitudwatclios.  such  as  CHRONOGRAPHS, 
KKPEATKHS,  QUARTER-SK(OM)  FLY- 
BACKS, Kl'C,  constantly  ou  hand. 

Giles'  Anti- Magnetic 
Shield  for  Watches. 

Every  fine  watch  should  bo  protected 
with  one  of  these  shields  if  absolutely  cor- 
rect time  is  required. 


*■■,!,.,. ■■ft— gAifc-r.ft 


State  and  Washington  Streets 

CHICAGO,  ILL. 


HORSEMEN'S  HEADQUARTERS 

The  English  Chop  House, 

No.  5  CALHOUN  PLACE,  CHICAGO,  ILLINOIS, 

William  M.  Boyle, 

PROPRIETOR, 

Ex-Secretary  DEXTER  PARK  and  CHICAGO  DRIVING  PARK. 


Horsemen  Welcome  Twenty-four  Hours  in  the  Day. 


A  Coterie  of  kindred,  spirits  always  there,  telling  stories  about 
the  trotting  turf. 

CHICAGO 

VETERINARY  ROLLEGE 

(Chartered  by  the  State  of  Illinois,  1883.) 

2537  and  2539  State  St., 

ch:ica.go,  ill. 


TRUSTEES: 

R.  J.  WITHERS, President 

A.  H.  BAKER,        -        .        .        Treasurer  and  Registrar 
JOSEPH  HUGHES, Secretary 

For  prospectus  and  further  information, 
write  to  the  Secretary. 


A  GREAT  BOOK  FOR  HORSE 
BREEDERS. 


No  hook  upon  any  branch  of  live-stock  breeding  ever  'published  in  the  United 
States  has  met  with  so  favorable  a  reception  as  has  been  accorded  to  '  "Horse- 
Breeding,"  by  J.  II.  Sanders,  senior  editor  of  "The  Breeders'  Gazette."  Since 
this  book  was  issued,  a  little  over  three  years  ago,  eight  large  editions  Jiave  been 
printed  and  disposed  of.  Since  the  first  editions  were  printed  the  work  has  been 
thoroughly  revised,  considerable  new  matter  added,  and  the  demand  for  it  in 
foreign  countries  has  been  so  great  that  it  has  been  translated  and  published  in  the 
Oerman  language,  a  compliment,  we  believe,  which  has  never  before  been  accorded 
to  any  book  upon  any  branch  of  live-stock  breeding  toritten  in  the  United  States. 
H.  D.  McKinney  {'■'Mamhrino"),  of  Janesville,  Wis.,  says  of  it:  "I  consider  it 
almost  invaluable,  and  could  I  not  procure  another  copy  would  not  take  ticenty 
times  the  pnce  of  it.'"  Hon.  John  Landrigan,  ex-President  of  the  Illinois  State 
Board  of  Agriculture,  says:  '  'I  have  no  hesitancy  in  saying  that  it  is  the  very  best 
bookon  the  subjectread by  mc,  and  should  be  in  the  hands  <f  every  person  interested 
in  horses.'''  V.  A.  Deiaraff,  of  Minnesota,  says  :  *^Itis  by  long  odds  the  most 
thoroughly  practiced  book  upon  the  breeding  and  management  of  horses  ever 
written.  The  chapters  devoted  to  tJie  management  of  stallions,  brood  mares,  and 
young  foals  are  especially  valuable."     The  price  is  $3  by  mail,  prepaid.    Address 

J.  H.  SANDERS  PUBLISHING  CO., 

226  La  Salle  Street,  CHICAGO. 


Putnam  Hot-Forged  Nail. 


^BBilSii^^ 


Nails  made  by  the  Cold  Eolling,  Punching, 
and  Shearing  Process. 


From  a  uorse'e  Fciot.  Providence,  R.  I. 


From  a  Horse's  Foot.  St.  Louis,  Mo. 


Look  well  to  your  horse's  feet 

For  unless  you  know  -what  Nail  has 
been  used,  in  Shoeina:  him,  you  are 
hable  at  any  moment  to  have  him 
lamed  by  a  Split  Nail  whi-^h  has  j)e..e- 
trated  ttie  wait  of  tne  foot,  resulting-  in 
lockja\y  or  death,  as  has  been  freqiaently 
the  case  since  the  introauction  of  cold- 
rolleci  nails. 

THE  PUTNAM  NAIL 

Is  the  only  Hot-Forged  and  Hammer-Poiflted 
Horseshoe  Nail  in  the  World 

that  is  not  CUT,  CLIPPED  or  SHEARED  upon  the 
pomt.  and  ■will  not  split  in  driving.  In  pointingr, 
as  well  as  making,  these  Nails  the  OLD  HAND 
PROCESS  has  been  followed  as  nepiiy  as  possible, 
w^ith  such  complete  success  that  they  are  the 
ONl.Y  GENUINE  HAMMER-POrNTED  NAILS 
IN  THE  -WORLD  in  which  the  STIFFNESS  and 
DUCTIBILITY  have  been  maintained  without 
injuring  the  FIBRE  of  the  iron:  hence  it  is  im- 
possible to  find  a  PUTNAM  Nail  which  slivers 
in  driving, 

SEE  THAT  YOUR  HORSE  IS  SHOD  "WITH 
OUR  NAIL,  and  avoid  all  risk.  For  sale  bv  all 
daalers  in  Horse  Nails.  Sample  sent  free  by 
mail  by  addressing 

PUTNAM  NAIL  CO.,  -  BOSTON,  MASS. 

p.  O.  Address,  XKl'OXSKT,  MASS. 


FEED  ALL  HORSES  CLEAN  OATS 


Patent  June  8th,  1886. 


BY  USING 

KASPERS  SELF-ACTING 
OATS  CLEANER. 

This  is  the  most  perfect  Grain  Purifier  known. 
Cannot  get  out  of  order  and  willlasl  for  years. 
No  power  necessary.  It  saves  sickness  among 
horses,  money,  time  and  trouble.  All  private, 
livery,  boardingand  teamingstablesand stock 
farms  shoald  have  one.  The  oats  are  cleaned 
as  they  pass  through  the  spout. 

FOREST  HILL,  Sept.  10, 1886.  To  Whom  it  May  Concern- 
The  Oat  Cleaner  put  in  my  stable  by  C.  Kasper  is  a  perfect 
success  as  an  Oats  Purifier.  J.  D.  ROCKEFELLER. 

Per  H.  M.  Sinclair. 

CLEVELAND,  C,  Sept.  29, 1886.— Rasper's  Oats  Cleaner  is 
the  best  and  most  effective  device  that  I  have  ever  seen  or 
used  for  the  purpose.  W.J.GORDON, 

Of  the  Cleveland  Driving  Park  Ass'n. 

CLEVELAND,  O  ,  Sept.  21,  1886.— I  would  advise  .nnvone 
Keeping'hur.'jes  and  desiring  to  feed  clean  oats,  to  puronase 
oneot  your  Oats  Cleaners.  It  certainly  does  all  you  claim 
tor  It,  and  works  to  my  entire  satisfaction. 

Your.-i  truly,  WM.  EDWARDS, 

Of  the  Cleveland  Driving  Park  Ass'n. 

ST.  LOUIS,  MO.,  Dec.  20, 1886.— Mr.  Chris.  Kaspe--In  refer- 
ence to  your  Kasper  Oats  Cleaner,  it  is  one  or  the  best  ar- 
rangements that  I  have  ever  seen,  and  I  would  not  be  without 
it  if  it  cost  three  times  the  price.  And  no  stable  should  be 
without  one,  as  it  Is  necessary  for  the  health  of  the  animals 
that  they  be  fed  clean  food.  A.  MURRAY, 

Supt.  American  Express  C'o.'s  Stable. 

CHICAGO,  April  18th,  1887.— Mr.  O  C.  Cleave— Dear  Sir:— 
You  may  say  that  the  Chicago  Fire  Department  has  placed 
Kasper's  Oats  Cleaner  into  general  use,  and  that  I  am  fully 
satisfied  that  it  is  a  grand  article  for  all  stables,  and 
especially  where  horses  are  urged  to  speed  and  need  good 
wind.  Clean  oats  should  always  be  fed  to  all  horses,  and  by 
using  your  Cleaner  it  can  easily  be  done. 

Yours  respectfullv.  D.  J.  SWENIE, 

Chief  of  Chicago  Fire  Dept. 

CHICAGO,  April  1.  1887.— Mr.  O.  C.  Cleave— Dear  Sir:  The 
two  Kasper's  Oats  Cleaners  which  you  placed  in  the  stables 
of  J.  V.  Farwell  &  Co.  are  giving  the  very  best  of  s.atis- 
faction.  I  have  used  fans  and  other  contrivances  for  clean- 
ing oats,  but  have  never  before  found  any  way  to  clean  the 
oats  as  perfectly  as  with  your  cleaners.  They  remove  all 
impurities  that  should  not  be  fed  to  horses,  and  as  all  oats 
should  be  cleaned  before  feeding,  I  strongly  recommend  the 
Kasper'sSelf-Acting  Oats  Cleaner  as  the  best  device  made 
for  this  purpose.  Yours  truly. 

CAPT.  PHILLIPS. 
Supt.  J.  v.  Farwell  &  Co.'s  Stables. 

Used  in  their  stables  and  endorsed  b}' 

STOCK  FARMS. 

M.  W.   Dunham.  Wayne,  111.      T.W.  Harvev,  Turlington. Neb. 

T.  P.  Phillips,  Naperville,  111.    Clairview,Grosse  Pomt,Mich. 

Galbraith    Bros.,   Janesville,  Hamlin's,  East  Aurora.  N.  Y. 

Wis.  Jewett's,  East  Aurora.  N.  Y. 

Waters.  Genoa  Junction,  Wis.  Miller  &  Sibley,  Franklin,  Pa. 
J.   O.    Wolcott,    Hutchinson,  Forest  City  Farm.  Cleveland. 

Kan.  W.  H.Wilson,  Cynthiana.Ky. 

WASHINGTON,  D.  C. 

White  House  Stable.  Government  Printing  Ofllce. 

War  Department  Stable.  W.    C.    Whitney,     Secrdtary 

U.  S.  Senate  Stable.  Navy. 

.   BUFFALO,  N.  Y. 
Dr.  Hinckley,  Veterinary.         Harry  Hamlin. 
Dr.  D.  B.  Stumpf,  Veterinary.  R.  S.  Jewett. 
C.  J.  Hamlin.  Henry  C.  Jewett. 

CHICAGO,  ILIi. 
Mayor  .John  A.  Roche.  Marshall  Field. 

Hon.  C.  B.  Farwell.  Henry  Field. 

J.  V.  Farwell.  Potter  Palmer. 

ROCHESTER,  N.  Y. 

Hon.  Frederick  Cook.  Jos.  Cunningham. 

I).  W.  Wright.  Jas.  Hart. 

Wm.  S.Kimball. 


Send  for  Descriptive  Circular  and  Price  Liist,  containing  names  and  testimonials 
of  prominent  horse-owners. 

O.C.  CLEAVE  &CO.,  Owners  and  Manufacturers, 

Office,  21  I  Wabash  Ave.,  CHiCAGO. 


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